BX  8951  .A7  1902 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the 

U.S.  General  Assembly. 
Twentieth  century  addresses 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/twentiethcenturyOOpres 


Twentieth    Century 
Addresses 


GENERAL  ASSEMBLY 

OF  THE 

PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 

IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 


ACADEMY  OF  MUSIC 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 
May  17,  1901 


philadelphia,  pa. 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath-School  Work 

1902 


Copyright,  1902,  by  the  Trustees  of 
The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath- 
School  Work. 


Contents 


INTBODUCTION  --.--.  5 

By  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Roberts,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Review  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  15 

By  the  Rev.  Prof.  Willis  Green  Craig,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Chicago,  Illinois. 

Progressive    Development    op     the    Presbyterian 

Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.        -  -  -  -         51 

By  the  Rev.  Henry  Christopher  McCook,  D.D.,  ScJX, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

The  Divine  Purpose  Developed  in  the  Progress  of 
Time      -  -  -  -  -  -       133 

By  the  Rev.  Henry  Collin  Minton,  D.  D.,  San  An- 
selmo,  California. 

The  Problems  of  the  Twentieth  Century  -  -       153 

By  the  Rev.  George  Tybout  Purves,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

The  Speedy  Bringing  of  the  World  to  Christ      -       175 
By  Mr.  Robert  Eliot  Speer,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

3 


4  CONTENTS 

The  Twentieth  Century  Movement.    Report  on  the 
Memorial  Fund  ------       203 

Address  on  the  Twentieth  Century  Fund  -  -       219 

By  the  Rev.  Marcus  Acheson  Brownson,  D.D.,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

The  Duty  and  Opportunities  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  Twentieth  Century       -  -       229 

By  the  Rev.   Samuel  Jack  Niccolls,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Moderator's  Sermon — "Fellow-workers  unto  the  King- 
dom of  God"      251 

By  the  Rev.  Charles  Andrews  Dickey,  D.D., 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 


Introduction 


The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  meeting  at  Minneapolis, 
Minn.,  May,  1899,  had  before  it  overtures  and  com- 
munications concerning  a  movement  to  be  known  as 
the  Twentieth  Century  Celebration.  In  connection 
with  these  papers  the  Committee  on  Bills  and  Over- 
tures of  that  Assembly  reported  the  following  Pre- 
amble and  Eesolutions,  which  were  unanimously 
adopted : — 

"  Whereas,  the  century  now  drawing  to  a  close 
has  been  one  of  signal  blessing  to  the  cause  of 
Christ  and  to  our  Presbyterian  Church,  a  time 
when  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  clearly 
manifest  in  extending  and  deepening  the  life  and 
work  of  the  Church,  and 

"  Whereas,  the  century  soon  to  open  presents 
to  our  Church  unparalleled  opportunities  of  service 
for  the  Master,  therefore  be  it 

"Resolved,  1.  That  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  in  session 
at  Minneapolis,  May,  1899,  expresses  its  earnest  de- 
sire to  show  in  some  fitting  manner,  our  gratitude 

5 


6  INTRODUCTION 

for  the  mercies  of  the  past  and  our  consecration  to 
the  opportunities  of  the  future. 

"  Resolved,  2.  That  a  Committee  of  six  ministers 
and  five  elders  be  appointed  by  the  Moderator  to 
report  to  the  next  General  Assembly  as  to  the  best 
method  of  fitly  celebrating  the  close  of  the  nine- 
teenth and  the  advent  of  the  twentieth  century." 

To  carry  out  the  above  Resolutions  the  Assembly 
appointed  the  following  Committee  on  the  Celebra- 
tion of  the  Twentieth  Century :  Ministers — Robert 
F.  Sample,  D.  D.,  Loyal  Y.  Graham,  D.  D.,  Robert 
K  Adams,  D.  D.,  W.  L.  McEwan,  D.  D.,  Walter 
A.  Brooks,  D.  D.,  Howard  Duflfteld,  D.  D. ;  Ruling 
Elders — Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  John  M.  Harlan, 
John  H.  Converse,  Henry  C.  Symmes,  and  F.  Wol- 
cott  Jackson. 

This  special  committee  of  the  Assembly  of  1899, 
reported  through  the  Chairman,  Rev.  Robert  F. 
Sample,  D.  D.,  to  the  Assembly  of  1900,  and  its  re- 
port was  adopted.     A  part  of  the  report  reads : — 

"The  Committee  have  held  three  meetings,  and  have  carefully 
considered  the  important  subject  entrusted  to  their  care.  They 
feel  that  words  are  inadequate  to  express  the  richness  of  God's 
bounty  to  his  people.  The  progress  made  by  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  the  U.  S.  A.  during  the  century  now  closing  is  very  great.  Our 
own  Presbyterian  Church  has  increased  from  twenty  thousand  to 
one  million  communicants,  and  more  than  two  million  two  hundred 
thousand  persons  have  been  received  into  our  congregations  on  con- 
fession of  faith  in  the  course  of  the  one  hundred  years.  In  the 
great  missionary  advance  of  the  century,  both  on  the  home  and 
foreign  fields,   our  missionaries  have  been  in  the  van,  and  the 


INTRODUCTION  7 

Church  was  so  blessed  of  God  that  she  could  give  during  the 
period,  to  the  work  of  saving  souls,  through  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions,  $21,154,867,  and  through  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
$25, 150,086.  The  total  of  the  missionary  and  benevolent  contribu- 
tions of  the  Church  from  1801  to  1900  exceeded  $87,000,000.  Such 
figures  emphasize  the  truth  that  for  the  work  of  Christ  in  the 
world,  America  has  been  but  another  name  for  opportunity.  '  Not 
unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  name  give  glory,  for 
thy  mercy  and  for  thy  truth's  sake.'  The  divine  favor  accorded 
in  the  past  is  a  sure  foundation  of  hope  for  and  new  endeavor  in 
the  future. 

"The  Committee,  after  serious  thought,  feel  that  the  Church,  in 
connection  with  this  historic  period,  should  be  summoned  to  praise 
and  effort  along  three  lines.  First  of  all,  there  should  be  in  our 
congregations  a  period  of  thanksgiving  and  prayer.  This  should 
be  accompanied  by  a  general  effort  for  the  strengthening  of  the 
financial  interests  of  congregations  and  the  extension  of  educational 
and  missionary  work.  Having  received  from  God  so  abundant  a 
spiritual  blessing,  we  should  as  a  denomination  manifest  our 
gratitude  by  compliance  with  the  scriptural  command,  'Freely  ye 
have  received,  freely  give.'  In  addition,  it  is  believed  that  a  pub- 
lic celebration,  under  the  auspices  of  the  General  Assembly,  would 
be  a  proper  denominational  tribute  of  praise  to  God,  and  an  ap- 
propriate testimony  to  the  world  of  the  thankfulness  of  the  Church 
for  unnumbered  mercies. 

"In  connection  with  the  proposed  day  of  public  celebration  by  the 
General  Assembly,  it  is  respectfully  submitted  that  historical  rea- 
sons should  lead  the  Assembly  to  appoint  the  services  in  the  City 
of  Philadelphia.  It  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  nearly  two  hundred  years  ago,  that  the  General  Presby- 
tery of  this  Church  was  organized,  in  that  city,  and  in  the  year 
1901  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Philadelphia  will  celebrate 
the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  ordination  of  its  first  pastor. 
In  the  judgment  of  the  Committee,  it  is  highly  appropriate  that  the 
Church  should  hold  this  historic  celebration  in  the  historic  place  in 
which,  as  an  organized  branch  of  the  Church  Universal,  it  was 
founded . 


8  INTRODUCTION 

' '  The  Committee,  in  view  of  the  preceding  considerations,  there- 
fore recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  Resolutions  : — 

"Resolved,  1.  That  during  the  observance  of  the  Week  of 
Prayer  in  January,  1901,  and  also  wherever  practicable  during  the 
week  following,  there  be  a  grateful  recognition  of  the  goodness  of 
God  to  his  Church  during  the  nineteenth  century,  and  earnest  sup- 
plication for  his  continued  blessing  on  the  Church  during  the 
twentieth  century. 

"  Resolved,  2.  That  the  first  Friday  of  the  General  Assembly's 
sessions  in  1901  be  set  apart  for  special  services  in  connection  with 
the  advent  of  the  twentieth  century — the  morning  session  to  be  oc- 
cupied with  the  review  of  the  history  of  the  Church  during  the 
nineteenth  century  ;  the  afternoon  session,  with  the  outlook  for  the 
twentieth  century  ;  much  of  the  time  during  these  sessions  to  be 
devoted  to  prayer  and  praise ;  and  the  evening  session  to  be  of  a 
popular  character,  with  addresses  appropriate  to  the  occasion. 

"  Resolved,  3.  That  a  special  memorial  fund,  to  be  known  as  the 
Twentieth  Century  Fund,  be  raised  for  the  endowment  of  Presby- 
terian academic,  collegiate  and  theological  institutions,  for  the  en- 
largement of  missionary  enterprises,  for  the  erection  of  church 
buildings  and  the  payment  of  debts  upon  churches  and  educational 
institutions,  and  for  the  other  work  of  the  Boards,  at  the  option  of 
the  donors  ;  contributions  to  specific  objects  to  be  strictly  regarded, 
and  contributions  to  the  general  work  to  be  distributed  according 
to  the  proportions  which  have  been  designated  by  our  General  As- 
sembly as  applying  to  miscellaneous  offerings ;  and  care  shall  be 
taken  that  this  special  effort  shall  in  no  way  conflict  with  or 
diminish  the  regular  contributions  to  the  treasuries  of  the  several 
Boards. 

' '  Resolved,  4.  That  in  connection  with  the  Fund  a  central  com- 
mittee be  appointed,  to  consist  of  six  ministers  and  five  elders, 
whose  headquarters  shall  be  in  Philadelphia  ;  which  committee 
shall  have  a  general  supervision  of  the  work,  shall  publish  ap- 
propriate literature  for  the  furtherance  of  the  object,  making  the 
widest  possible  distribution  of  the  same,  all  expenses  to  be  met  out 
of  the  general  contributions  ;  and  that  the  Stated  Clerk  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  be    appointed    Treasurer    of    the  Fund,  to  serve 


INTRODUCTION  9 

without  expense,  except  for  such  clerical  assistance  as  may  be  re- 
quired. 

"  Resolved,  5.  That  for  the  reasons  stated  the  General  Assembly 
of  1901  meet  in  the  City  of  Philadelphia." 

The  Committee  also  reported  a  Programme  for 
the  proposed  public  Celebration,  and  recommended 
"  that  a  Special  Committee  of  five,  including  the 
officers  of  the  Assembly,  be  appointed  to  take 
charge  of  the  Celebration,  with  power  to  attend  to 
all  matters  connected  therewith."  The  Committee 
as  appointed  was  composed  of — Ministers — Charles 

A.  Dickey,  D.  D.,  Wm.  Henry  Eoberts,  D.  D.,  Win. 

B.  Noble,  D.  D. ;  Ruling  Elders — John  Wanamaker, 
Wm.  H.  Scott. 

The  Committee  thus  appointed  reported  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  1901  (see  Minutes,  p.  14)  that 
"  acting  in  accordance  with  the  authority  conferred," 
they  had  "arranged  that  the  celebration  should 
take  place  at  the  Academy  of  Music,"  Philadelphia, 
at  the  hours  and  with  the  speakers  named  by  the 
Assembly  of  1900,  with  the  exception  that  the  Kev. 
Henry  van  Dyke,  D.  D.,  having  declined  to  accept 
the  place  assigned  to  him  in  the  programme,  owing 
to  the  pressure  of  other  duties,  it  had  been  arranged 
that  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Twentieth 
Century  Fund  should  be  presented  on  Friday  even- 
ing.    The  report  of  the  Committee  was  approved. 

The  Public  Celebration  thus  arranged  for  was 
held  as  appointed,  and  was  in  all  respects  acceptable 
and    successful.     The    audiences    were    large,   en- 


10  INTRODUCTION 

thusiastic  and  representative.  The  General  Com- 
mittee of  Arrangements  for  the  Assembly  of  1901, 
composed  of  leading  Philadelphians,  cooperated 
heartily  and  efficiently  with  the  Assembly's  Com- 
mittee, and  much  of  the  success  attained  was  due  to 
their  efforts.  The  Programme  of  the  Celebration 
was  as  follows  : — 


PUBLIC    CELEBRATION    OF    THE    ADVENT  OF  THE 

TWENTIETH    CENTURY,   FRIDAY, 

MAY,    17,    1901. 


Morning  Session,  9 :  30  a.  m. 

John  H.  Converse,  LL.  D.,  Chairman. 

Long  Meter  Doxology — "  Praise  God,  from  Whom 
All  Blessings  Flow." 

Prayer — By  the  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly. 

Scripture — Kev.  Geo.  B.  Stewart,  D.  D.,  Auburn, 
N.  Y. 

Address — "  Review  of  the  Nineteenth  Century," 
Rev.  Willis  G.  Craig,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Chicago,  111. 

Hymn  300—"  I  Love  Thy  Kingdom,  Lord." 

Prayer — Rev.    D.    J.   Sanders,   D.   D.,   Charlotte, 

N.  C. 

Address — "  Progress  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century,"  Rev.  Henry  C. 
McCook,  D.  D.,  Sc.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


INTRODUCTION  11 

Prayer— Kev.  J.  P.  E.  Kumler,  D.  D.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

Hymn  298 — "  Glorious  Things  of  Thee  are  Spoken." 

Benediction — Kev.  L.  Merrill  Miller,  D.  D.,  Ogdens- 
burg,  N.  Y. 

Afternoon  Session,  2 :  30  p.  m. 

Rev.  E.  R.  Burkhalter,  D.  D.,  of  Iowa,  Chairman. 

Hymn  524—"  Guide  Me,  O  Thou  Great  Jehovah." 

Prayer — Rev.  Herrick  Johnson,  D.  D.,  Chicago,  111. 

Address — "  The  Divine  Purpose  Developed  in  the 
Progress  of  Time,"  Rev.  Henry  Collin  Minton, 
D.  D.,  San  Anselmo,  Cal. 

Hymn  225—"  In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  Glory." 

Prayer — Rev.  Samuel  M.  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  Engle- 
wood,  1ST.  J. 

Address — "The  Problems  of  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury," Rev.  George  T.  Purves,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
New  York,  K  Y. 

Hymn  503 — "  Christian,  Seek  not  Yet  Repose." 

Prayer — Rev.  William  H.  James,  D.  D.,  Spring- 
dale,  Ohio. 

Address — "  The  Speedy  Bringing  of  the  "World  to 
Christ,"  Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  New  York,  K  Y. 

Prayer — Rev.  J.  Milton  Greene,  D.  D.,  Porto 
Rico. 

Hymn  386—"  The  Morning  Light  is  Breaking." 

Benediction — Rev.  John  N.  Forman,  Fatehgarh, 
India. 


12  INTRODUCTION 

Evening  Session,  8  p.  m. 

Hon.  John  Wanamaker,  Chairman. 

Anthem — "  Jubilate  Deo,"  by  the  Young  People's 
Choir,  Mr.  James  Morrison,  Jr.,  Conductor. 

Hymn  425—"  Blest  Be  the  Tie  that  Binds." 

Prayer — Kev.  H.  A.  Ketchum,  D.  D.,  Salem,  Oreg. 

Keport — Committee  on  the  Twentieth  Century 
Fund. 

Addresses — Kev.  M.  A.  Brownson,  D.  D.,  and  Eev. 
Charles  A.  Dickey,  D.  D. 

Hymn  347—"  Stand  Up,  Stand  Up  for  Jesus." 

Prayer— Kev.  J.  D.  Moffat,  D.  D.,  Washington,  Pa. 

Address — "  The  Opportunity  and  Duty  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury," Rev.  Samuel  J.  Mccolls,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Anthem  by  the  Choir — "  The  Kecessional." 

Prayer — Kev.  S.  Hall  Young,  D.  D.,  Alaska. 

Hymn  370 — "  Onward,  Christian  Soldiers." 

Benediction— Kev.  W.  H.  W.  Boyle,  D.  D.,  Colorado 
Springs,  Col. 

The  Committee  on  the  Celebration  presented  to 
the  Assembly  the  recommendation  "  that  the  Stated 
Clerk  be  directed  and  authorized  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  the  meeting,  and  that  he  also  be  em- 
powered to  prepare  a  volume  containing  the  ad- 
dresses delivered  upon  this  occasion,  the  same  to  be 
published  by  the  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath- 


INTRODUCTION  13 

School-Work."    The  recommendation  was  adopted. 

One  notable  feature  of  the  Celebration  was  an 
Historical  and  Missionary  exhibit  arranged  in  the 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  illustrating  the  history  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  and  the  progress  of  its 
missionary  work  during  the  nineteenth  century. 
This  exhibit  set  forth  in  an  admirable  and  striking 
manner  the  work  of  all  the  Missionary  and  Benevo- 
lent Boards  as  well  as  the  general  History  of  the 
Church,  and  the  gentleman  to  whose  knowledge, 
skill  and  energy  it  was  largely  due,  is  the  Eev. 
Henry  C.  McCook,  D.  D.,  Sc.  D.,  pastor  of  the 
Tabernacle  Presbyterian  Church,  Philadelphia. 
With  Dr.  McCook  were  associated  other  Ministers 
and  Elders  who  cordially  cooperated  with  him. 

Special  recognition  is  also  made  of  the  excellent 
services  of  the  Chorus  Choir,  composed  of  young 
people,  organized  by  the  Rev.  C.  M.  Alford,  D.  D., 
and  led  by  Mr.  James  Morrison,  Jr. 

The  General  Assembly  made  record  of  its  satis- 
faction over  the  Celebration,  and  tendered  to  the 
speakers,  the  chairmen,  and  all  who  participated 
therein,  its  profound  sense  of  gratitude. 

The  Church  is  indebted  to  the  Board  of  Publi- 
cation and  Sabbath-School  Work,  and  to  the  officers 
of  the  Board,  for  their  hearty  cooperation  in  this  as 
in  all  the  work  of  the  Church,  and  for  the  admirable 
manner  in  which  this  volume  of  addresses  has  been 
carried  through  the  press. 

Wm.  Heney  Robeets. 


REVIEW  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CEN- 
TURY 


BY  THE 

Rev.  WILLIS  GREEN  CRAIG,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


REVIEW  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY 

BY  THE 

Eev.  WILLIS  GREEN  CRAIG,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


Mr.  Moderator,  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and 

Gentlemen : — 

It  has  been  well  said  that,  "  the  dawn  of  a  new 
century  affords  a  natural  occasion  for  a  retrospect 
into  the  past,  for  the  taking  of  stock  of  the  world's 
gain  and  loss,  for  a  comparison  of  the  world  as  we 
see  it  to-day,  with  its  condition  as  it  was  known  to 
our  ancestors  a  hundred  years  ago." 

The  task  imposed  by  this  review  is  a  difficult  one. 
The  period  under  consideration  embraces  the  life- 
time of  three  ordinary  generations  of  men.  The 
achievements  of  the  century,  as  compared  with  all 
past  time,  border  on  the  marvelous.  The  move- 
ment, especially  in  the  latter  half  of  the  period,  is 
so  rapid,  and  upon  lines  of  such  far-reaching  im- 
portance, that  the  reviewer  is  confused,  if  not  ap- 
palled, as  he  undertakes  his  task.  The  problems 
handed  over  by  the  nineteenth  to  the  twentieth 
century  are  so  various,  so  grave  and  so  far  from 
2  17 


18  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

solution,  that  we  look  with  awe  upon  the  mighty 
things  that  have  been  done,  in  the  light  of  the 
solemn  duties  that  they  impose  upon  those  who 
must  conduct  the  race  along  the  perilous  path  of  the 
era  that  has  just  dawned.  And,  above  all,  the 
time  allowed  for  this  discussion  is  so  brief,  as  to  all 
but  guarantee  inadequate  treatment.  But  without 
further  words  we  may  enter  upon  our  task. 

In  order  that  we  may  understand  the  distinctive 
and  influential  movements  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, let  us  observe  the  situation  of  the  great 
nations  of  the  earth  at  its  opening. 

M.  Jules  Koche  in  an  article  in  the  Paris  Figaro, 
has  given  us  an  accurate  outline  of  the  population 
of  the  great  nations,  of  what  is  called  "active 
humanity,"  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  There  is  little  resemblance  between  the 
Europe  of  1801  and  the  Europe  of  to-day.  The 
names  of  the  larger  states  are  the  same,  but  they 
describe  very  different  entities.  The  population 
of  France  with  its  new  and  natural  boundaries  was 
33,000,000.  Kussia  had  but  36,000,000,  mostly  un- 
civilized. The  United  Kingdom  had  only  16,000,000. 
The  old  German  empire,  which  was  then  but  a 
political  expression — having  crumbled  before  the 
arms  of  France, — contained  in  its  300  constituent 
states,  but  25,000,000.  Austria  and  Hungary  had 
as  many.  There  was  no  Italy.  The  Kingdom  of 
Sardinia  had  less  than  3,000,000.  The  States  of  the 
Church,    less   than   3,000,000.      The   Kingdom   of 


TWENTIETH   CENTURY  ADDRESSES  19 

Naples,  almost  5,000,000.  The  Grand  Duchy  of 
Tuscany,  1,000,000.  On  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
our  country  with  its  5,000,000  inhabitants  was  the 
only  one  whose  numbers  were  known.  The  popu- 
lation of  what  may  be  called  the  outlying  peoples 
was  unknown.  The  facts  as  to  these  nations  were 
but  feebly  grasped,  and  no  special  account  taken  of 
them  as  forces  to  be  considered  in  the  ongoing  of 
human  civilization. 

One  hundred  years  ago  "  active  humanity  "  num- 
bered less  than  175,000,000. 

Consider  the  political  condition  of  the  "  active 
peoples  "  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  most  terrific  outburst  of  human  passion 
against  a  grinding,  pitiless,  long-continued  tyranny 
of  king  and  ruling  classes  that  the  world  has  ever 
known,  made  memorable  the  closing  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  French  people  with  a 
shout  of  wild  agony  had  rushed  for  the  throat  of 
authority,  had  seized  and  strangled  it  to  death. 
The  nation  raised  its  bloody  hands  to  heaven  and 
swore  a  mighty  oath,  that  kings  and  nobles,  ruling 
classes,  tyrants,  all  destroyers  of  human  liberty,  and 
wanton  enemies  of  all  rational  happiness,  should 
exist  no  more.  Out  from  the  murderous  riot  and 
deadly  killing  of  those  awful  revolution  days,  there 
issued  the  note  of  human  aspiration,  and  hope  for 
man,  as  man,  and  the  maddened  throng,  even  in  the 
midst  of  the  frenzied  tumult  of  unchecked  passion, 
demanded   that   liberty,   equality,   and   fraternity, 


20  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

should  henceforth  be  the  watchwords  of  human 
society. 

If  the  aspiration  was  lawful,  and  the  expression 
of  it  had  anything  of  the  true  and  the  practicable  in 
it,  the  time  was  not  yet,  and  the  people  had  not 
arrived  by  whom  it  could  be  brought  to  realization. 
As  our  century  opened,  a  gigantic  spirit  arose, 
almost  unparalleled  among  men,  voracious  in  his 
selfishness,  far-seeing  in  vision,  conscienceless  in 
thought  and  corresponding  act,  resistless  in  power, 
who  laid  hold  of  the  storm  of  human  passion,  guided 
it  for  a  time  along  its  purposed  path,  and  then, 
with  all  but  magical  skill,  turned  it  away  from  its 
origins,  and  required  it  to  do  his  bidding,  as  he  led 
it  along  the  highway  of  his  enormous  ambitions, 
looking  to  personal  glory  and  unrestrained  power. 
Under  the  leadership  of  the  great  Napoleon,  Europe 
blazed  with  war  for  the  first  dozen  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century ;  war  which  left  human  rights, 
happiness  and  even  life  out  of  sight,  and  which 
threatened  the  very  foundations  of  public  order  and 
rational  government.  Progress  toward  better  things 
for  humanity  at  large ;  for  the  imposition  and  exe- 
cution of  just  and  humane  laws;  for  sane  education, 
which  levels  up  the  people  as  a  mass  toward  civic 
righteousness  and  levels  down  rulers  into  a  love  for 
subjects  and  to  a  rightful  exercise  of  acknowledged 
authority,  did  not  begin  in  Europe  at  the  beginning 
of  our  century.  Another  country  was  designated  of 
God  to  discover  and  express  the  ultimate  principles 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  21 

of  human  freedom,  to  establish  these  principles  in 
abiding  constitutional  forms,  and  then  to  set  them 
in  practical  operation  through  administrative 
agencies,  for  the  happiness  of  its  own  people,  as  a 
beacon  light  for  the  oppressed  in  every  land,  and 
for  the  slow  but  sure  instruction  of  the  nations  as  to 
the  rights  of  man,  the  necessary  presupposition  of 
human  dignity,  progress,  and  true  happiness.  That 
nation,  our  beloved  land,  thus  summoned  to  this 
august  enterprise,  had  assumed  the  commanding 
form  of  national  life  only  a  few  short  years  before 
the  nineteenth  century  opened.  The  scars  of  the 
embattled  farmers  who  had  won  the  prize  of 
political  freedom  against  enormous  odds  had  hardly 
healed  when  the  new  century  was  called  to  begin 
its  eventful  course. 

The  new-lorn  nation  was  few  in  numbers,  all  but 
impoverished  by  a  long-continued  devouring  war, 
scattered  over  immense  tracts  of  but  partially  set- 
tled territory,  hemmed  in  by  the  sea  on  the  one 
side  and  by  unbroken  primeval  forests  on  the  other, 
threatened  day  and  night  by  savage  tribes  em- 
bittered by  wrongs  which  they  could  not  forget, 
and  with  every  species  of  administrative  perplexity 
clamoring  for  speedy  settlement,  with  an  untried 
instrument  of  government  waiting  to  be  expounded 
and  illustrated  by  action,  fitted  to  secure  the  lib- 
erties that  had  been  purchased  at  such  a  costly 
price  of  blood  and  treasure.  Who  could  say  that  the 
new  nation  would  live?    Or  who  would  dare  to 


22  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

imagine  that,  ere  the  century  closed,  it  would  forge 
to  the  side  of  the  foremost  nations  in  the  world,  and 
even  challenge  them,  one  and  all,  for  the  leadership 
in  whatever  makes  a  nation  great  in  learning,  in 
resources,  in  power,  in  numbers  and  in  influence, 
wherever  and  whenever  the  mightiest  world  powers 
are  gathered  for  debate  and  decision  as  to  the  des- 
tinies of  the  race  ?  And  yet  there  need  have  been 
no  uneasy  questioning,  for  the  young  nation  was 
designate  of  God.  It  came  into  national  being  at 
the  appointed  time.  It  was  quick  with  living  prin- 
ciples. It  had  obtained  a  stage  for  action,  in  its 
national  possessions,  broad  enough  to  act  out  a 
mighty  play  before  the  world  at  large.  A  few 
leading  spirits  in  England  and  on  the  continent, 
whose  unclouded  vision  could  in  some  real  sense 
pierce  the  future,  saw  the  promised  potency  of  the 
newcomer  among  the  nations,  and  they  were  glad. 
As  for  the  most,  they  sat  sullen,  and  prophesied 
evil. 

We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  appearance 
on  the  scene  of  organized  national  life  of  our  nation 
was  the  greatest  single  event  in  the  world's  history 
at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Concerning  the  lands  and  peoples  outside  of  what 
I  have  called  "  active  humanity,"  there  is  nothing 
of  historical  importance  to  record.  When  the  year 
1801  was  first  written  on  our  calendars,  bold  voy- 
agers had  touched  remote  islands  and  distant  ports. 
They  had  coasted  the  shores  of  unknown  lands.     A 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  23 

little  trade  here  and  a  little  there,  sufficient  to 
awaken  the  cupidity  of  the  adventurers,  but  not 
great  enough  to  stimulate  arduous  and  sustained 
exploration.  The  knowledge  of  the  outlying  peo- 
ples was  hopelessly  inadequate,  and  consequently 
invalid. 

A  single  people,  China,  ancient  and  mighty,  with 
a  population  outnumbering,  in  point  of  fact,  the 
entirety  of  the  progressive  peoples,  was  lying  in 
hermit-like  isolation,  exclusive,  and  excluding  all 
other  men  from  its  hoary  precincts,  and  barely  per- 
mitting approach  to  its  outermost  harbors.  The 
real  Africa,  was  "  Terra  Incognita."  Even  the  old 
central  seats  of  human  life,  from  whence  came  the 
impetuous  hordes  that  seized  and  settled  Europe, 
had  retreated  from  the  gaze  of  civilized  man,  or,  at 
most,  remained  an  intangible  reality,  indefinite  to 
thought,  unknown  as  to  conquest,  commerce  or 
evangelization. 

India  with  its  teeming  millions,  its  recondite  phi- 
losophy, its  ascetic  religion,  its  damaging  system  of 
caste,  its  fabulous  wealth,  was  in  the  way  of  being 
exploited  by  a  greedy  commercial  company,  which 
looked  down  with  haughty  contempt  on  the  soft- 
mannered  natives,  and  sought,  not  them,  but  their 
possessions,  their  jewels,  their  gold,  their  lands, 
their  very  homes,  founded  by  ancestors  whose  blood 
had  run  pure  for  a  thousand  years. 

Even  the  Spanish  Americans  to  the  south  of  us 
were  an  uncensused  people,  and  counted  for  little 


24  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

in  the  plans,  the  operations,  and  the  general  out- 
look, of  the  dominant  nations  at  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Such  was  the  political  and 
territorial  aspect  of  the  world  100  years  ago. 

Next  think  upon  the  condition  of  letters  at  the 
opening  of  the  century  and  its  earliest  years. 

The  brilliant  lights  of  eighteenth  century  letters 
were  still  shining  when  our  century  dawned.  Addi- 
son, Steele,  Johnson,  Gibbon,  Garrick,  and  Keynolds, 
had  passed  away ;  but  their  influence  was  not  lost. 
We  may  find  polish  and  sentiment,  striving  after  a 
true  ethic,  a  certain  seeking  unto  God  on  the  part 
of  the  essayist.  The  tone  of  the  poet  was  often 
well  modulated  and  sweet,  the  aspirations  lofty, 
and  the  opinions  just,  but  the  singers  were  chanting 
to  a  narrow  audience  and  the  verse  moved  within 
a  restricted  circle.  The  world's  peoples  were  far 
away,  closed  out  from  the  thinker's  thoughts,  de- 
barred from  his  sympathies,  by  the  apparent  unre- 
ality of  their  existence.  The  historian  studied  with 
unwearied  industry  the  memorials  of  classic  an- 
tiquity. He  led  his  patient  reader  into  the  byways 
of  Greek  and  Eoman  life,  and  traced  their  adven- 
turous steps  along  the  highways  of  splendid  national 
achievements ;  but  their  national  life  was  of  the 
past,  their  glory  faded,  their  significance  to  be 
measured  by  the  value  of  the  lessons  which  might 
be  drawn  from  an  extinguished  career. 

Living  nations,  incredible  as  to  numbers,  hoary 
with  age,  vital  with  living  forces,  waiting  to  be 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  25 

called,  were  unknown,  and  the  polished  essayist, 
the  painstaking  historian,  the  learned  publicist,  the 
impassioned  poet,  had  no  word  for  them, — their 
hour  had  not  struck.  Letters,  no  matter  how  bril- 
liant, arising  out  of  the  bosom  of  "  active  humanity," 
could  not  reach  to  them,  could  not  even  find  them. 
Another  and  a  different  agency  must  be  summoned 
before  the  world  of  men  could  be  brought  face  to 
face  in  order  to  mutual  acquaintance  and  common 
benefits.  Will  the  nineteenth  century  find  the 
agency,  while  all  past  generations  have  failed  to 
discover  it  ? 

Let  us  pass  now  to  consider  the  condition  of 
Christianity  as  to  numbers,  organization,  spiritual 
vigor,  range  of  effort,  general  ideals,  and  practical 
plans  for  the  extension  of  the  gospel  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  period  just 
preceding  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
one  of  the  darkest  in  the  history  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  perhaps  the  darkest  in  the  history  of 
Protestantism.  A  reliable  historian  informs  us, 
"  that  the  Protestantism  of  the  Eeformation  seemed 
almost  to  have  spent  its  force.  It  had  wasted  itself 
in  internal  conflicts,  lost  its  independence  by  part- 
nership with  the  State,  and  minimized  its  influence 
by  an  alliance  with  nationalism,  moderatism,  and 
a  destructive  worldliness.  In  Great  Britain  the 
Wesleyan  movement  had  not  reached  a  dominative 
position.     Presbyterianism  in  that  realm  was  all 


26  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

but  extinct,  the  English  Established  Church  was 
negative  in  doctrinal  teachings,  formal  in  religious 
life,  immersed  in  worldliness.  On  the  continent 
torpor  reigned,  and  Christian  activity  seemed  a 
thing  of  the  past.  In  America  the  feeble  Christian 
life  was  sorely  taxed  in  a  struggle  for  self-preserva- 
tion. One  hundred  years  ago  the  aggressive  power 
of  Protestantism  was  reduced  to  its  minimum.  The 
science,  the  philosophy,  and  the  culture,  of  that  age 
were  almost  wholly  against  evangelical  Christianity. 
Never  before  nor  since  has  infidelity  combined  rela- 
tively so  much  wealth,  culture  and  power.  Hume's 
nameless  blasphemies,  Voltaire's  brilliant  wit  and 
amazing  industry,  and  the  French  Eevolution  with 
its  mighty  sweep  of  radical  revolt,  combined  to 
subvert  the  popular  belief  in  Christianity  and  brand 
the  Church  as  a  creature  of  superstition  and  false- 
hood. In  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen. 
tury  this  revolt  struggled  hard  to  maintain  its 
ground  and  even  to  push  the  struggle  on  to  the 
complete  destruction  of  Christianity."  Even  after 
1817,  we  are  told,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years 
nearly  6,000,000  volumes  of  the  works  of  Yoltaire 
and  Kousseau  and  other  infidel  writers,  besides 
countless  tracts,  were  circulated  on  the  continent 
of  Europe.  "Was  there  ever  such  a  whirlwind  of 
destructive  forces  raging  at  one  time  against  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  ? 

To  offset  this  we  have  in  1790,  in  the  way  of 
aggressive    Christianity,   only   three   foreign   mis- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  27 

sionary  societies  in  Europe,  and  none  in  America. 
In  the  last  ten  years  of  the  eighteenth  century 
five  additional  foreign  missionary  societies  were 
founded.  These  new  societies,  however,  at  first 
encountered  great  unbelief  and  opposition  from 
many  in  the  Churches,  and  ridicule  from  the  world. 
Ecclesiastical  bodies  in  Scotland  denounced  the 
scheme  of  foreign  missions  as  illusive,  visionary 
and  dangerous,  and  decreed  that  it  was  absurd  to 
think  of  propagating  the  gospel  abroad,  so  long  as 
there  remained  a  single  individual  at  home  without 
the  means  of  religious  knowledge. 

Under  these  general  conditions  abroad  and  at 
home  the  nineteenth  century  opened.  What  will 
the  human  race  accomplish  during  the  course  of  the 
single  century  which  we  call  the  nineteenth  ? 
There  was  no  prophet  to  foretell.  No  poet  could 
have  even  fancied  the  mighty  things  to  be  accom- 
plished in  a  single  century.  The  past  furnished  no 
patterns  for  the  work  now  to  be  attempted.  The 
materials  for  a  picture  of  the  coming  years  were 
not  within  the  grasp,  nor  even  within  the  knowl- 
edge, of  men.  The  human  intellect  was  alive, 
vigorous  and  disciplined.  Man  was  in  the  midst  of 
his  environments.  But  he  had  not  made  their  ac- 
quaintance. He  may  learn  what  is  about  him,  and 
then  a  new  movement  will  begin.  The  breath  of 
the  Spirit  must  blow  upon  man,  if  the  new  century 
is  to  move  forward  to  any  wider  knowledge,  to  any 
real  advance  along  the  highway  of  Christian  de- 


28  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

velopment,  to  any  worthy  deeds  looking  to  the  real 
fulfillment  of  Christ's  great  commission  to  disciple 
all  nations. 

The  first  great  lesson  that  is  impressed  upon  the 
student  of  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
is  that  nothing  more  of  prime  importance  can  be 
done  to  lift  the  race  along  an  upward  way  looking 
to  ultimate  victory  over  the  super-abounding  evils 
that  afflict  this  world,  save  in  the  power  of  a  fresh 
and  abounding  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is 
the  old,  old  lesson — away  from  God,  life  in  the 
mere  energy  of  the  flesh,  and  the  race  sinks  back 
into  moral  corruption  and  consequent  weakness, 
even  though  there  be  the  glamour  of  wealth  and 
the  semblance  of  power.  The  needed  baptism  of 
the  Spirit  came  in  the  early  years  of  the  century. 
Moderatism  died  the  death  in  Scotland.  Evan- 
gelical religion  as  the  fruit  of  organized  Wesleyan- 
ism  in  Great  Britain,  and  the  far-reaching  revivals 
in  this  country,  changed  the  face  of  things  at  home 
and  abroad.  Great  religious  organizations,  fitted 
for  the  mighty  tasks  of  a  world-wide  evangeliza- 
tion, began  to  take  shape.  Men  were  soon  think- 
ing of  spiritual  conquests  on  a  scale  never  con- 
sidered before.  They  laid  the  foundations  deep, 
and  inlaid  them  with  principles  pertinent  to  uni- 
versal conquests.  Mere  local  benefits  no  longer 
controlled  the  thinking  and  planning  of  Christian 
men.  As  we  look  back,  we  are  amazed  to  observe 
the    comprehensive    principles   which   guided   the 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  29 

organizing  movements  intended  to  propagate  the 
gospel  which  the  Christian  fathers  in  the  early  days 
of  the  century  undertook  and  perfected.  They 
were,  comparatively  speaking,  a  localized  generation 
— provincial  we  would  say  now — out  of  touch  with 
the  world  qua  world.  But  the  mere  local  concep- 
tion of  things  did  not  predominate  in  their  thought 
as  they  wrought  out  the  framework  of  their 
religious  societies.  Universality  of  Christian 
knowledge,  Christian  discipleship,  and  Christian 
benefits,  guided  their  arduous  endeavors  and  in- 
fluenced their  widening  sympathies.  They  did  not 
know  accurately  the  mighty  numbers  of  the  world's 
teeming  population,  but  they  thought  out  toward 
them  and  stretched  out  their  hands  over  the  vast 
spaces  of  the  habitable  globe,  ready  to  bless  what- 
ever distant  tribe  or  nation  might  be  found. 

Let  us  glance  at  the  great  Christian  organizations 
which  were  founded  in  the  early  days  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  intended  to  supply  the  world  with  the  Word 
of  God  without  note  or  comment,  was  founded  in 
1804,  in  America  in  1816.  What  spiritual  insight 
these  men  had  into  the  deepest,  most  regulative 
facts  concerning  God  and  sinful,  needy  man  and 
the  only  reconciling  middle  term  between  God  and 
needy  man,  Christ  the  Lord,  when  they  laid  the 
foundation  of  these  glorious  agencies  for  the  dis- 
semination of  the  gospel,  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations!      If   they  had   been  able  to  see  the  de- 


30  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

mands  that  would  be  made  upon  their  societies, 
they  might  have  shrunk  back  in  dismay  from 
the  mere  magnitude  of  the  task.  "What  strange 
and  difficult  languages  and  dialects  will  be  en- 
countered as  exploration  proceeds,  separating  the 
new  peoples,  though  discovered,  from  the  influence 
and  benevolent  disposition  of  the  discoverers  ? 
Who  shall  read  to  them  in  their  own  tongue,  or  ex- 
plain,  when  read,  the  wonderful  things  of  God  ? 
Who  shall  undertake  to  break  down  this  seemingly 
impassable  barrier  of  differing  tongues  ?  The 
forces  behind  the  great  Bible  Societies  will  do  it, 
even  in  the  energy  of  the  Spirit.  New  tongues  will 
be  conquered.  Endless  dialects  shall  be  forced  to 
submit  to  indomitable  human  intelligence  working 
toward  the  highest  ends.  The  universal  Word  of 
God,  made  known  in  every  tongue  spoken  among 
the  divided  families  of  men,  shall  prove  to  be  the 
final  argument  to  establish  the  unity  of  the  race, 
and  upon  the  great  acknowledged  facts,  stimulate 
the  supreme  undertaking  of  the  ages,  to  wit : — the 
evangelization  of  the  world. 

Early  in  the  century  commenced  the  organization 
of  the  great  missionary  societies  throughout  Chris- 
tendom. Then  the  cultivation  of  benevolence  that 
the  way  might  be  cleared  for  the  advance.  Then 
a  devout  Christian  literature,  informing  the  Chris- 
tian nations  as  to  the  wide  range  of  the  purpose  of 
grace,  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  great  problems 
of  missionary  labor.     Then  the  organization  of  edu- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  31 

cation,  looking  to  a  wide,  yea,  an  universal  training 
of  men  as  rational,  knowing  subjects,  destined  for 
higher  things  than  mere  physical  life.  Foundations 
for  higher  education  and  for  professional  training, 
challenging  the  liberality  of  benevolent  people  to 
an  unprecedented  extent,  were  laid  deep  and  wide, 
indicating  the  coming  time  when  men  will  be 
needed  with  every  faculty  developed,  and  seeking  a 
content  of  information  fitted  to  startle  coming  gen- 
erations with  its  extent  and  variety.  So  matters 
stand  as  we  cross  the  middle  line  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

And  yet  the  real  movement  to  encircle  the  globe 
with  light  and  life  tarried.  The  world-wide  problem 
of  universal  evangelization  and  civilization  has  not 
been  yet  fairly  confronted.  The  populations  of  the 
earth  as  such  stand  aloof.  Isolation  still  holds  the 
world  of  men  in  its  grasp.  Great  nations  live  far 
away,  and  lonely,  locked  in  the  embrace  of  remote- 
ness. The  forces  of  awakened  humanity  cannot 
circulate  throughout  the  whole  body  of  mankind. 
Men  are  not  in  touch.  What  will  meet  this  grave 
necessity,  and  overcome  it  ? 

Then  it  was  that  science  awoke  from  its  torpor 
and  entered  upon  its  momentous  task.  Man  was  in 
contact  with  the  world,  but  he  did  not  know  it. 
He  had  seen  steam  rising  from  boiling  water,  had 
confined  it,  and  utilized  it  for  a  few  common  and 
servile  tasks,  but  he  had  no  conception  of  its  amaz- 


32  TWENTIETH  CENTUM Y  ADDRESSES 

ing  possibilities.     He  had  felt  the  shock  and  wit- 
nessed the  brightness  of  the  electric  spark  in  some 
secluded  laboratory.     He  had  seen  it  blazing  along 
the   sky,  now  in   eccentric  forked   forms,  now  in 
sheets  of  blinding  glare,  but  he  had  never  dreamed 
that  it  could  be  harnessed  and  made  to  do  man's 
bidding  like  a  child.     The  men  of  that  day  had  heard 
the  human  voice  in  all  its  varied  and  charming 
tones,  the  soft  music  of  a  mother's  song  soothing 
her  child  to  sleep,  the  ravishing  notes  of  some  en- 
trancing singer  giving  utterance  to  the  resistless 
passion  of  the  human  heart,  through  music's  subtle 
harmonies.     He  had  heard  the  orator  awakening, 
thrilling,  convincing,  guiding  men  to  high  thoughts 
and  mighty  deeds  in  behalf  of  home,  altar  and  na- 
tive land,  but  he  had  never  dreamed  that  the  human 
voice  could  reach  a  thousand  miles,  though  spoken 
in  the  modulated  tones  fitted  for  immediate  per- 
sonal intercourse.     He  had  seen  waving  fields  of 
golden   grain  gathered   by  the   slow  and   painful 
process  of  the  sickle  or  the  cradle,  but  never  had  he 
dreamed  of  the  mighty  harvesters  moving  with  re- 
sistless force  over  miles  of  continuous  fields,  and 
bringing  to  completion  in  a  day  the  mighty  tasks 
which  then  demanded  weeks  in  the  performance. 
As  a  people  our  fathers  had  crossed  the  sea,  the 
bold  spirits  among  them  had  drawn  away  from  the 
shores  of  old  ocean,  and  had  turned  their  faces  to- 
ward the  west,  bent  upon  the  exploration  of  the 
far-reaching  primitive  forests,  the  lofty  mountains, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  33 

the  persuasive  valleys,  the  water  courses  which 
threaded  the  vast  expanse  guaranteeing  life  and 
fruitfulness  to  the  teeming  soil.  But  how  had  they 
moved  here,  as  everywhere?  By  the  slow  and  un- 
certain sailing  vessel  over  tractless  wastes  of  water. 
On  land,  by  foot,  on  horseback,  or  by  the  lumber- 
ing wagons,  or  by  stage  coach  over  unleveled  roads, 
creeping  as  a  snail.  What  distance  had  they 
reached  ?  They  were  still  skirting  the  outer  edge 
of  this  vast  continent.  "Transportation"  was  in 
its  childhood,  though  the  race  was  already  old. 

The  people  of  different  continents  were  separated 
by  the  impregnable  barriers  of  "  distance,"  and 
rumors  of  "  other  peoples,"  their  existence,  their 
habits,  their  numbers,  their  powers  and  their 
wealth,  were  unknown,  or,  at  the  most,  the  doubt- 
ful accounts  of  other  lands  and  peoples  brought  in 
by  some  intrepid  but  infrequent  traveler,  formed 
the  material  for  conclusions,  scanty  and  misleading 
at  best,  concerning  vast  sections  of  the  earth  and 
its  inhabitants.  As  a  race,  all  of  one  blood  with 
like  passions  and  similar  needs,  men  had  never 
faced  each  other.  "What  can  Bible  societies  and 
mission  boards  and  hospitals  and  improved  print- 
ing presses  and  more  accurate  education,  and  better 
medical  and  surgical  knowledge  and  practice,  and 
more  scriptural  views  of  the  Christian  obligation  to 
a  universal  evangelization,  accomplish,  if  we  do 
not  know  the  nations,  if  we  cannot  come  face  to 
face  with  them  ?    Practically  to  obey  Christ's  last 

3 


34  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

command,  we  must  annihilate  distance.  We  must 
stand  in  the  presence  of  men,  found  out  in  their 
homes  by  persistent  exploration,  and  to  be  dealt 
with  as  near  neighbors.  To  do  this,  nature  must 
be  subjugated. 

At  this  point,  and  for  this  tremendous  task,  nat- 
ural science  commenced  its  mighty  career.  The 
men  of  science  have  made  nothing ;  they  have  sim- 
ply discovered  what  was  already  made  and  waiting 
to  be  found  and  utilized.  These  great  forces  or 
laws  of  nature,  which  they  have  discovered,  com- 
bined and  applied  to  useful  ends,  were  always  pres- 
ent in  nature,  since  the  great  Creator  had  called 
the  world  into  existence.  God  knew  these  laws,  as 
he  knows  his  chosen,  whose  names  are  written  on 
the  palms  of  his  hands.  As  the  patient  scientist 
made  a  discovery,  and  then  with  inventive  skill, 
applied  it  to  some  marvelous  end,  before  which  even 
the  most  enlightened  of  the  progressive  peoples 
bowed  in  utter  astonishment,  be  it  known  that  this 
was  but  a  commonplace  to  God.  He  had  always 
known  the  principle  and  its  possible  effects,  when 
mastered  by  man  and  combined  with  other  great 
principles,  and  properly  guided.  The  great,  ra- 
tional, supreme  Spirit,  Creator  and  Governor  of  the 
universe  gave  his  special  revelations  to  men  in  the 
full  knowledge  of  all  great  laws,  and  what  they 
could  be  made  to  accomplish.  His  gracious  plan 
of  redemption  was  purposed  in  full  sight  of  what 
we  call  the  secrets  of  the  universe.     They  were  no 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  35 

secrets  to  him.  The  lines  along  which  the  gospel 
must  be  propagated,  the  knowledge  of  the  world 
which  must  be  gained  by  men  before  the  great  con- 
quests of  the  Cross  could  be  consummated,  all  these 
were  known  to  God,  were  designated  to  their 
proper  time.  He  sent  great  men  developed  by  ages 
of  mental  toil  to  find  the  always  existing  laws 
of  nature,  not  simply  for  their  intrinsic  value,  but 
as  a  needed  preparation  for  something  higher,  as 
adjuncts  for  work  in  a  nobler  sphere. 

Some  of  the  men  of  our  day  look  upon  these  bril- 
liant discoveries  of  science  simply  as  dazzling  won- 
ders, to  be  admired  for  their  own  sake,  and  rested 
in  as  the  ultimate  benefit.  These  are  mistaken.  If 
we  would  weigh  accurately  the  products  of  human 
genius,  when  the  maximum  has  been  reached,  when 
every  law  of  the  realm  of  nature  has  been  appre- 
hended and  put  to  man's  service,  we  must  still  ask 
the  question :  Will  these  great  results,  taken  as  a 
possession,  satisfy  the  needs  and  aspirations  of 
moral,  responsible,  immortal  agents  ?  The  answer 
comes  swiftly  :  Nay,  nay,  they  cannot.  Truly  let 
us  agree,  this  marvelous  subjugation  of  nature  is 
but  a  means  to  an  end.  It  is  intended  to  compass 
the  purposes  of  grace,  to  bring  to  completion  the 
kingdom  of  God  among  men. 

The  triumphs  of  science,  especially  in  the  last  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  merit  mention  in  some 
detail.  Well  has  it  been  said,  "  The  sternest  grapple 
with  the  forces  of  nature  ever  known  among  men 


36  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

has  been  witnessed  in  the  last  fifty  years."  Man  is 
the  undoubted  head  of  the  earthly  series.  He  has 
made  long  strides  in  the  assertion  of  his  dominion 
over  the  earth  upon  which  he  dwells.  The  struggle 
for  mastery  has  been  gallant  and  inspiring  to  the 
last  degree.  He  has  sought  for  reality,  and  by 
better  processes  than  were  known  in  earlier  times. 
He  has  had,  in  part  at  least,  his  due  reward.  Fact 
after  fact  has  been  brought  to  light  and  properly 
correlated.  The  earnest  students  of  nature  have 
often  made  mistakes  by  hastening  to  conclusions 
upon  a  too  narrow  anthology  of  particulars,  but 
they  have  been  ready  to  retreat  from  untenable 
positions,  and  to  continue  the  search  for  fact  with 
unwearied  patience.  The  votaries  of  science  have 
once  and  again  plunged  into  domains  of  thought 
for  which  their  peculiar  studies  afforded  them  no 
fitness  of  preparation,  and  concerning  which  they 
had  no  competent  knowledge,  and  so  have  essayed 
the  impossible  task  of  destroying  fact  in  one  depart- 
ment of  human  knowledge,  with  fact  obtained  from 
another  and  different  department.  But  the  folly  of 
such  a  procedure  has  been  easily  demonstrated,  and 
the  giants  of  material  science  have  been  made  to 
know  that  man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone,  and 
that  the  rational,  the  spiritual  dominates  the  ma- 
terial. Otherwise  they  could  not  have  discovered 
their  own  facts.  But  with  all  the  mistakes  that 
have  been  made,  and  after  all  the  hard  and  false 
applications  of  scientific  facts,  so-called,  to  other  and 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  37 

nobler  regions  of  truth  into  which  human  thinkers 
must  necessarily  go,  what  a  debt  do  we  owe  to  the 
patience,  ability,  learning,  and  truthfulness,  of  the 
natural  and  physical  scientists,  who  have  labored 
and  produced  so  wonderfully  in  the  last  half  of  the 
century  which  we  have  under  review.  To  rightly 
appreciate  the  marvelous  achievements  of  science 
we  may  first  of  all  consider  the  supreme  question 
of  "  Transportation."  In  the  year  1801,  the  people 
of  the  world,  we  are  reminded,  were  still  using  the 
same  means  of  locomotion  that  were  known  to  the 
most  ancient  times,  and  the  speed  that  they  could 
make  was  that  of  the  sailing  vessel,  the  horse,  or 
the  ox,  the  camel,  or  the  elephant.  My  own  father 
rode  horseback  from  central  Kentucky  to  Lexing- 
ton, Virginia,  to  pursue  his  studies  in  what  is  now 
called  the  "Washington  and  Lee  University.  When 
his  collegiate  studies  were  complete,  he  rode  horse- 
back to  Philadelphia,  in  company  with  merchants, 
to  attend  medical  lectures  under  the  renowned  pro- 
fessors, Physic  and  Push.  This  journey  he  accom- 
plished in  this  manner  two  successive  years,  return- 
ing each  year  by  the  same  method  of  travel  to  his 
distant  home.  We  can  hardly  realize  that  we  are 
so  close  to  the  old  modes  of  travel,  and  our  astonish- 
ment is  heightened  when  we  recall  the  fact,  that 
for  fifty-seven  centuries  the  world  had  been  at  a 
standstill  in  these  respects.  Under  such  restrictions 
the  race  of  man  could  not  realize  its  solidarity. 
And  now  what  has  science  and  invention  wrought 


38  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

in  this  interest  in  the  last  fifty  years  ?  You  may 
well  look  with  awe  upon  your  railways,  climbing 
every  mountain  and  threading  every  valley,  and 
your  steamships  plowing  every  sea,  hurrying  men 
with  incredible  rapidity  from  the  outermost  con- 
fines of  the  earth  to  any  chosen  center,  and  then 
scattering  them  back  as  by  magic  to  their  distant 
homes :  distributing  the  products  of  the  surface 
and  the  bowels  of  the  earth  to  every  corner  of  the 
habitable  globe,  in  masses  that  stagger  the  imagina- 
tion. 

We  may  look  upon  the  telegraph  and  telephone 
lines,  as  they  bind  up  the  inhabitants  of  all  lands 
with  bands  of  steel  and  copper,  with  ever  growing 
amazement,  and  exclaim,  "  We  are  dwelling  in  won- 
derland." Nay,  we  are  at  home  in  the  same  old 
dwelling  place  that  our  fathers  knew  ;  only  science 
has  found  out  a  few  facts,  always  existent,  which 
our  ancestors  had  not  even  imagined,  and  lo,  the 
face  of  the  world  has  changed,  and  men  have  been 
transformed  as  at  the  touch  of  a  magician's  wand. 
See  the  printing  presses  which  will  yield  1,500  book 
impressions  an  hour,  and  for  newspapers,  printing 
both  sides  of  the  sheet,  folding  and  delivering  at  the 
rate  of  from  10,000  to  20,000  an  hour.  The  inven- 
tions in  the  agricultural  department:  the  plows, 
the  reaping  and  mowing  machines,  the  cotton  gin. 
The  mining  drills  and  ore  separators.  The  ice 
machines  turning  the  tropics  into  the  North  Pole  in 
a  single  particular.     The  mail  facilities  which  dis- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  39 

tribute  private  letters  and  printed  literature  to 
every  breakfast  table  in  the  civilized  world.  The 
vast  geological  inquiries  which  have  discovered  the 
earth  beneath  its  crust,  and  made  its  secrets  below 
almost  as  plain  as  the  surface  facts.  In  the  field  of 
optics  and  acoustics :  the  polarization  of  light,  the 
solar  spectrum,  the  spectroscope,  the  X-rays,  the 
phenomena  of  vibration,  the  physiology  of  hear- 
ing, the  physical  causes  of  the  quality  of  sounds, 
the  phonograph.  Our  scientists  have  climbed  the 
skies  and  walked  among  planets  and  stars,  at  ease. 

Medical  discoveries  have  eased  the  race  from  a 
thousand  ills  that  tormented  our  fathers  who  lived 
their  lives  out  unremedied.  Surgery  with  its  ether, 
chloroform,  cocaine,  its  "  surgical  cleanliness,"  and 
its  bold  but  safe  skill,  has  penetrated  with  its 
relieving  knife  to  the  very  vitals  of  the  body.  But 
why  use  our  allotted  time  with  further  enumeration 
of  scientific  discovery  ?  These  are  not  the  common- 
places gathered  from  current  accounts.  Volumes 
are  filled  with  the  details,  so  vast,  so  beneficial,  so 
striking  that  we  retire  from  the  reading  all  but  con- 
fused with  the  riches  of  result. 

The  subjugation  of  nature  to  which  the  vast 
increase  in  human  population,  in  power,  in  material 
welfare,  is  due,  owes  but  little,  as  has  been  well 
said,  to  arms,  to  emperors,  to  legislatures,  to  gov- 
ernments. The  true  potentates  have  been  the  men 
of  inventive  genius,  of  devotion  to  science,  whose 
discoveries  and  whose  energies  have  renovated  the 


40  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

earth,  and  knit  its  remote  parts  together.  They 
have  made  greater  changes  than  all  the  princes,  all 
the  conquests,  all  the  foundations  and  all  the  falls 
of  kingdoms  and  empires.  The  men  of  ideas  have 
come  to  the  front.     Honor  to  whom  honor  is  due. 

But  we  may  well  ask,  in  what  atmosphere  was 
this  scientific  genius  bred  ?  What  soil  produced 
the  men  of  ideas  ?  The  resistless  impulse  of  Chris- 
tian thinking  stirred  the  sons  of  Christian  lands  to 
these  mighty  tasks.  They  are  found  in  no  other 
land.  Christianity  has  its  final  aims,  and  its 
directive  agencies.  "When  nature  needed  to  be 
interrogated  more  fully  in  furtherance  of  these 
aims,  the  inquiry  commenced  in  earnest,  under 
provisions  made  by  Christianity  itself,  and  the 
answers  were  prompt  to  come  in.  The  Christian 
Church  well  knows  how  to  adapt  and  to  utilize 
them,  as  their  truthfulness  is  made  clear,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  her  divinely  commanding  task, 
even  though  some  of  her  most  able  and  efficient  work- 
ers have  been  blinded  to  the  higher  truth  by  the 
brilliancy  of  mere  earthly  lights. 

Let  us  now  estimate,  in  a  general  way,  the  most 
important  gains  for  humanity,  during  the  nineteenth 
century. 

1.  Increase  of  population  of  so-called  Christian 
nations.  To-day  France,  with  contracted  limits, 
numbers  38,000,000.  England  has  41,000,000.  The 
new  German  empire  has  56,000,000.  Austria,  45,- 
000,000.      Kussia   perhaps   135,000,000.     Italy  has 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDliESSES  41 

32,000,000.  The  United  States  72,000,000.  Tak- 
ing into  account  all  the  colonies  of  European  and 
American  states  and  other  peoples  who  have  come 
into  sight,  it  may  be  said,  using  abundant  caution, 
that  the  progressive  peoples  number  800,000,000  as 
against  less  than  175,000,000  one  hundred  years  ago. 
2.  Amplification  of  religious  organizations,  es- 
tablished early  in  the  century,  and  other  societies 
for  Christian  work,  founded  at  a  later  date.  An 
accurate  writer  informs  us  (Rev.  Judson  Smith, 
D.  D.)  "that  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  different  versions  of  the  Scriptures 
numbered  only  about  fifty,  spoken  by  less  than 
one-eighth  of  the  race.  There  are  now  421  differ- 
ent languages  or  dialects  into  which  the  Bible  as  a 
whole  or  in  part  has  been  translated.  These  in- 
clude the  languages  spoken  by  at  least  three-fourths 
of  the  human  race.  This  marvelous  work  of 
translation  is  almost  entirely  due  to  missionaries, 
and  constitutes  in  itself  a  grand  achievement.  All 
these  languages  have  been  studied  and  mastered  by 
foreigners  after  long,  continuous  and  exacting  toil. 
There  is  no  other  single  piece  of  literary  work  that 
can  compare  with  it.  Think  of  the  time  and  pains 
that  are  necessary  to  obtain  such  an  understanding 
of  Chinese,  Japanese,  Tamil,  Hindustani,  Turkish, 
and  the  hundreds  of  other  tongues,  so  as  to  be  able 
to  speak  and  write  freely  therein ;  and  to  be  able  to 
reduce  the  language  of  barbarous  peoples  to  written 
and  lexical  forms,  to  make  the  grammar  and  vo- 


42  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

cabulary  of  the  language  before  the  work  of  trans- 
lation can  be  commenced.  Who  can  measure  the 
time  and  effort  required  for  such  a  task  ?  In  what 
other  field  of  labor  has  anything  like  this  been 
attempted  ?  It  has  been  done.  Consider  the  fact 
that  the  great  Bible  societies  have  published  the 
Scriptures  in  these  manifold  tongues  and  sent  them 
forth  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  at  a  price  not  above 
cost,  and  who  can  doubt  that  God  is  on  the  scene  of 
human  life,  and  that  he  has  made  good  the  ancient 
saying,  "  He  has  magnified  his  word  above  all  his 
name." 

Protestant  foreign  missionary  boards  have  in- 
creased from  a  few  weak  societies  before  1801,  to 
seventy  strong  boards,  besides  numerous  subsidiary 
organizations.  Numerous  woman's  foreign  mis- 
sionary boards  have  been  organized,  especially 
in  the  United  States,  the  first  in  1861,  and  all  but 
one  since  1868.  The  Sunday-school,  organized  in  a 
peculiar  manner  and  for  a  special  purpose,  just  at 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  has  grown  to  a 
mighty  force,  beyond  all  expectation,  for  the  re- 
ligious care  of  children.  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations,  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, The  Christian  Endeavor  Society,  medical 
missions  on  a  large  scale,  have  been  founded  and 
have  rendered  the  most  efficient  service. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the  Church  is 
organized  fitly  for  the  conquest  of  the  world  for 
Christ.     Power  must  come  down  from  on  high  to 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  43 

quicken  the  various  corps  of  the  Christian  army, 
before  the  world-wide  conquest  can  be  achieved. 
But  the  Church  is  no  longer  theorizing  and  praying 
and  hoping,  it  no  longer  presents  the  spectacle 
of  detached  individuals  zealous,  alert,  devoted, 
but  powerless.  The  strength  of  organization  is 
with  us. 

Large  additional  numbers  of  workers  will  be  de- 
manded, as  the  field  of  missions  widens,  and  sol- 
diers here  and  there  fall  at  their  post,  but  the  army 
is  in  the  field,  organized,  equipped,  drilled,  and 
under  command,  and  the  word  has  been  given, 
"  Enter  in,  abide,  and  possess  the  land  for  Christ." 
The  battle  is  on.  We  will  not  take  off  the  har- 
ness before  the  victory  has  been  won,  but  there  is 
no  retreat  now, — no  rest,  no  harking  back  for  the 
men  of  vision.  Checks  there  will  be.  "We  have 
met  with  one  recently  in  which  more  than  four 
hundred  Christian  missionaries  won  the  martyr's 
crown,  and  by  their  side  most  gloriously,  there 
stood  and  fell,  a  great  company  of  true  disciples  of 
our  God,  but  recently  called  from  the  ranks  of  a 
degraded  paganism,  as  we  are  told  by  the  press. 
But  this  will  but  swell  the  streams  of  salvation  to  a 
mighty  flood,  as  when  the  temporary  dam  but 
gathers  the  waters  of  a  river  into  a  resistless  head, 
ready  when  the  hour  strikes  to  sweep  all  before 
them.  The  Christian  people  are  in  one  large  sense 
a  prepared  people  now,  and  there  is  waiting  for 
them  a  prepared  field,  called  of  God,  "  the  world," 


44  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

and  that  field,  we  believe,  is  a  field  of  final,  if  not 
speedy  victory. 

3.  The  human  race,  as  such,  is  for  the  first  time, 
face  to  face.  The  world  has  been  fully  explored. 
There  remains,  probably,  no  undiscovered  territory 
of  any  significance.  It  is  a  thrilling  sight,  an  awe- 
inspiring  picture.  Men,  as  such,  all  men  gazing 
steadfastly  into  each  other's  faces :  "  Many  strange, 
uncouth,  savage  men,  shrinking  back  and  crying  to 
the  newcomers,  '  Who  are  you  ?  '  '  From  whence 
do  you  come?'  'What  is  your  message?'  'We 
have  heard  the  tramp  of  many  feet.  We  have 
heard  the  sound  as  of  thunder.  We  have  seen  the 
glare  of  the  lightning,  and  our  braves  dropped  to 
the  earth,  dead  men.' "  And  the  disciples  of  Christ 
are  answering,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  confusion  of 
unhappy  wars :  We  are  your  brothers.  We  have 
found  you  at  last,  For  God  "hath  made  of  one 
blood  all  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the  times  before 
appointed,  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation ;  that 
they  should  seek  the  Lord."  Amazing  spectacle : 
can  we  gaze,  and  live,  and  not  do  f 

It  was  known  that  this  must  be,  and  would  be, 
before  the  gospel  could  triumph.  A  recent  writer 
calls  attention  to  a  prediction  made  by  Sir  Isaac 
Newton.  In  the  commentaries  which  Sir  Isaac  has 
written  on  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  and  on  the 
Apocalypse,  he  has  occasion  to  speak  of  the  rapidity 
with  which  events  must  be  brought  to  pass  in  order 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  45 

to  prepare  the  way  for  the  universal  spread  of  the 
gospel  at  the  time  predicted,  and  he  avows  his 
belief  that  men  will  discover  the  means  of  passing 
from  place  to  place  with  unwonted  speed,  perhaps 
at  the  rate  of  fifty  miles  an  hour.  Yoltaire  in  his 
self-conceit  and  hostility  to  religion  scoffed  at  the 
suggestion  not  only  as  a  contradiction  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  sober  sense  and  sound  philosophy,  but  as  a 
proof  of  the  bewildering  and  entangling  influence 
of  Christianity  on  the  mind  of  a  great  man.  He 
does  not  question  the  services  which  Newton  has 
rendered  to  the  cause  of  philosophy,  while  devoting 
his  mind  to  scientific  subjects.  But  he  professes 
deep  regret  to  see  the  enlightened  philosopher  ren- 
dered a  poor  dotard  by  employing  his  mind  in  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures.  Great  and  gifted  men 
both  of  these.  The  one  a  seer,  the  other  a  blind 
man.  The  fifty  miles  an  hour  have  been  reached, 
and  more,  much  more,  and  men,  as  men,  are  face  to 
face. 

4.  Increase  of  the  Church  during  the  century. 
It  has  been  determined  by  experts  that  in  the 
year  1801,  the  Christian  Church  at  large  numbered 
200,000,000.  At  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury the  number  of  Christians  had  grown  to  500,- 
000,000.  A  gain  of  300,000,000  in  a  single  cen- 
tury. This  is  a  remarkable  growth  especially 
when  compared  with  the  rate  of  advance  in  all  the 
previous  centuries.  In  fifteen  hundred  years 
Christianity  gained  100,000,000.     In  three  hundred 


46  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

years,  from  a.  d.  1500,  to  A.  D.  1800,  it  gained 
100,000,000  more.  In  100  years  the  era  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  Christianity  gained  nearly 
300,000,000,  more  than  as  much,  as  the  statistician 
reminds  us,  as  in  the  eighteen  centuries  previous  to 
A.  d.  1801.  We  cannot  detain  this  audience  around 
statistics,  but  the  faint-hearted  should  be  encour- 
aged by  the  facts.  The  Church  as  a  whole  is  gain- 
ing on  the  world.  At  the  rate  of  advance  estab- 
lished in  the  nineteenth  century,  the  Church  will 
soon  obtain  the  recognized  oversight  of  the  entire 
population  of  the  earth. 

5.  Human  slavery  has  been  abolished  by  all  the 
enlightened  nations. 

6.  Education  has  been  enlarged,  systematized, 
and  opened  to  the  masses. 

7.  Abundant  wealth  for  the  world's  business  and 
comfort,  and  for  the  work  of  the  Church,  has  been 
amassed,  and  is  being  freely  used. 

8.  Larger  freedom  for  mankind,  in  the  territory 
of  advanced  humanity  has  been  achieved  notwith- 
standing notable  exceptions  to  the  contrary. 

The  price  which  we  have  paid  for  the  marvelous 
scientific  advance  of  the  century.  "We  see  it  in  the 
tendency  toward  materialism.  The  skeptical  spirit 
is  abroad.  Great  self-sufficiency  is  manifested  in 
some  circles  amounting  to  a  sort  of  boyish  claim  of 
independency  of  God,  and  indifference  to  an  on- 
coming eternity.  The  demand  is  made  for  the  abso- 
lute authority  of  fact  in  the  domain  of  material 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  47 

science,  and  equally  absolute  freedom  from  fact  in 
the  domain  of  spiritual  knowledge,  though  sup- 
ported by  evidential  values  that  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned. This  state  of  mind,  toward  religion  in 
general,  and  specially  toward  the  large  postulates 
of  the  Christian  religion,  is  regarded  with  dismay 
by  some  timid  Christians.  It  is  rather  a  matter  of 
delight,  with  others,  who  are  a  little  weary  with 
the  gravities  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  who  would 
like  a  season  of  untrammeled  roaming  amid  the 
uncertainties  of  speculative  thinking.  With  the 
watchful  and  grave  leaders  of  thought,  however, 
the  understanding  is  definite.  The  skeptical  atti- 
tude in  many  circles,  is  just  the  price  this  genera- 
tion must  needs  pay  for  the  advance  in  scientific 
knowledge  which  the  nineteenth  century — last  half 
— has  made  in  the  world's  great  interests,  but  with 
drawbacks.  Let  us  not  be  afraid,  not  even  impa- 
tient, certainly  not  despondent,  in  view  of  the  un- 
faith  and  worldliness  of  the  closing  days  of  a  great, 
very  great  century.  Man  cannot  interpret  nature 
without  God,  and  he  cannot  be  delivered  without 
the  Christ :  for  "  He  is  before  all  things,  and  by 
him  all  things  consist."  "  Beware  then,  lest  any 
man  spoil  you,  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit, 
after  the  elements  of  the  world,  and  not  after 
Christ." 

Christianity  must  nevertheless  honor  true  science. 
She  must  bring  it  to  work  in  her  cause,  and  she 
must  strive  with  all  love  and  patience  to  save  the 


48  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

scientists  who  have  been  raised  up  of  God  to  break 
the  way  for  the  triumphs  of  the  Cross.  "  The  cen- 
tury closed  with  many  a  voice  crying  into  the  ears 
of  men.  It  has  been  called  a  vociferous,  multitudinous 
generation,  with  which  we  have  had  to  do  as  we 
watched  the  last  hours  of  a  dying  century."  "  Posi- 
tivist,  idealist,  utilitarianist,  theosophist,  spiritist, 
monist,  naturalist,  mediaeval  reactionist,  general 
skeptic — all  telling  the  world  what  dogmas  of 
Christianity  we  have  rejected,  and  why  f  Self  suffi- 
cient patronizers  of  the  Gallilasan  are  informing  a 
long-suffering  Church  and  overwearied  public,  what 
religious  beliefs  we  still  hold,  and  Why  ? "  All 
these  are  here,  coming  and  going  :  and  yet  above 
them  all,  high  and  commanding,  the  clear,  ringing 
voice  of  divine  revelation  is  heard,  calling  men 
back  to  God  through  an  all-sufficient  Mediator  once 
crucified,  but  now  reigning  on  the  throne  of  power 
and  of  grace. 

At  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  even  as  at 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  men  want 
freedom  to  think  for  themselves.  Freedom  from 
whose  sway?  Not,  we  trust,  from  the  great 
supreme  rationality,  whom  to  think,  to  love,  to 
trust,  and  to  serve,  is  the  largest  possible  freedom 
for  the  highest  rational  finite  being.  Professor  Har- 
nack  has  raised  the  question  of  our  age  and  of  all  ages : 
How  can  a  man  be  intellectually  free,  and  yet  a 
man  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  And  he  has  been  reminded 
that  that  question  was  solved,  for  all  time,  at  the 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  49 

conference  in  Jerusalem,  and  no  better  solution, 
yea  no  other,  can  ever  be  offered. 

And  now,  fathers  and  brethren,  we  must  close 
this  hasty  and  in  every  way  imperfect  review  of 
what  we  may  call  a  pivotal  century.  Other  speak- 
ers will  bring  forward,  with  larger  detail  and 
greater  accuracy,  individual  particulars  of  this  great 
period  of  time.  And  others  yet  will  guide  your 
thought  into  the  fateful  days  that  await  us,  as  the 
century  begins  its  august  movement. 

There  is  a  final  word,  sad  to  some,  not  so  to  us, 
who  are  risen  with  Christ  and  who  seek  things 
which  are  above  where  Christ  sitteth  on  the  right 
hand  of  God.  The  stalwart  men,  the  great  men 
chosen  of  God  to  open  the  nineteenth  century,  are 
not  here.  No  increase  of  knowledge,  no  multipli- 
cation of  wealth,  no  mandatory  control  of  the  forces 
of  nature,  no  medical  discoveries,  no  surgical  skill, 
no  speculative  theory  as  to  the  unreality  of  body,  sin 
and  pain,  no  plaintive  call  of  living  friends,  crying, 
"  Abide  with  us,  the  world  of  man  is  just  beginning 
to  live,"  could  hold  them  here.  They  are  silent, 
they  have  disappeared,  they  are  dead.  So  it  will  be 
said  of  every  one  of  us,  when  the  twenty-first 
century  is  ushered  in.  Our  life  here  is  but  a  tale 
that  is  told,  but  as  a  watch  in  the  night.  May  our 
inward  life,  our  relations,  one  with  another,  our 
discussions,  our  preaching,  our  individual  and  organ- 
ized testimony,  our  service  of  God  and  men,  be  un- 
dertaken and  accomplished  in  the  light  of  the 
4 


50  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

solemn  fact.    We  are  passing  on  to  the  final  award, 
and  none  may  detain  us. 

"  This  is  not  my  place  of  resting, 
Mine's  a  city  yet  to  come. 
Onward  to  it  I  am  hasting, 
On  to  my  eternal  home." 


THE     PROGRESSIVE     DEVELOPMENT 
OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 
IN   THE   U.  S.  A. 


BY  THE 

Rev.  HENRY  CHRISTOPHER  McCOOK,  D,  D.,  Sc.  D. 


THE    PROGRESSIVE     DEVELOPMENT    OF 

THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN 

THE  U.  S.  A. 


BY  THE 

Rev.  HENRY  CHRISTOPHER  McCOOK,  D.  D.,  Sc.  D. 


The  history  of  a  river  does  not  begin  at  the  point 
on  the  plain  where  it  has  reached  the  proportions 
of  a  stream.  It  begins  at  the  fountain  head.  The 
chief  characteristic  elements  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury were  born  in  the  last  decades  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  eighteenth  century  was  a  child  of 
the  seventeenth,  and  as  far  as  specific  American 
Church  history  is  concerned,  we  there  mark  its 
fountain  head. 

I 

New  England  as  a  Mother  of  Presby- 
terianism 

Presbyterianism  came  to  America  in  the  wake  of 
the  Mayflower.  The  Presbyterianism  of  Eliza- 
bethan days,  of  which  Thomas  Cartwright  was  the 

53 


54  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

incomparable  advocate,  and  of  the  reign  of  the 
Stuart  kings,  of  which  the  Westminster  divines 
were  the  exponent,  was  successfully  lodged  in 
America  on  New  England  soil.  The  experiment  of 
Admiral  Coligni,  thirty  years  before  the  landing  on 
Plymouth  Rock,  to  colonize  Florida  with  the 
Huguenot  type  of  French  Presbyterianism,  was 
extinguished  in  blood  by  Spain ;  but  the  zone  of 
New  England  was  happily  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
Castilian.  The  Westminster  Confession  and  Cate- 
chisms were  lodged  in  the  colonies  neither  by  the 
Scotch  of  Caledonia  nor  the  Scotch  of  Ulster,  but 
by  the  English  Puritans.  Cotton,  Davenport,  and 
Hooker,  were  nominated  to  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly, and  would  have  gone  but  for  local  considera- 
tions. Eliot,  the  proto-missioner  to  the  Indians, 
represented  thousands  who  emigrated  to  New  Eng- 
land or  were  banished  by  Oliver  Cromwell  and 
Charles  II.  It  may  be  assumed  safely  that  of  the 
twenty  thousand  or  more  settlers  in  New  England 
during  the  first  fifty  years  of  occupancy,  from  one- 
quarter  to  one-fifth  were  Presbyterians  of  the  West- 
minster Assembly  type. 

They  were  at  length  merged  in  the  general  mass 
of  Congregationalists,  which  in  the  end  swallowed 
up  even  the  Scotch  exiles  and  the  Scotch-Irish  set- 
tlers, from  whom  sprung  such  heroes  as  Generals 
Stark  and  Sullivan.  Only  here  and  there  a  sturdy 
remnant  survived,  like  the  old  Newburyport  Church 
wherein   the   evangelist  Whitefield  lies  entombed. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  55 

The  growing  New  England  theocracy  quenched 
the  Presbyterian  order.  But  the  process  developed 
(Jan.  6th,  1657)  perhaps  the  first  of  the  now  long 
list  of  American  benevolent  organizations,  known 
as  "  The  Scotch  Charitable  Society  of  Boston." 

Yet  the  leaven  did  not  lose  its  activity.  The 
theory  of  the  "Westminster  Puritans  survived,  and 
even  found  organic  expression  in  a  modified  species 
of  Presbyterianism  which,  in  certain  sections,  was 
scarcely  distinguishable  from  our  present  type.  In 
Connecticut,  within  the  memory  of  those  now  liv- 
ing, "  Congregationalist "  and  "  Presbyterian  "  were 
interchangeable  words,  and  the  distinction  between 
"  consociation  "  and  "  presbytery  "  was  one  of  terms 
rather  than  of  character.  Here  and  there  were 
sporadic  settlements  of  pure  Presbyterian  congre- 
gations, as  for  example,  that  of  Kichard  Denton 
made  at  Watertown  in  1630,  and  at  Hempstead, 
Long  Island,  in  1644. 

But  the  evolutionary  development  of  the  old 
English  Puritan-Presbyterianism  was  wrought  out 
by  a  change  of  environment.  New  England  lies 
next  door  to  the  Empire  State  ;  and  when  the  avail- 
able farms  of  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont  were  taken  up,  the  stream  of  population, 
following  its  natural  parallel  and  the  line  of  least 
resistance,  turned  westward  into  New  York.  There 
it  met  organized  Presbyterianism,  and  was  greeted 
with  a  hospitality  which  was  more  than  friendly ; 
it  was  fraternal.     As  in  1643  the  Scottish  commis- 


56  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

sioners  fraternized  in  the  Jerusalem  chamber  with 
the  English  Puritans,  as  men  of  kindred  doctrine 
and  order,  so,  in  the  beautiful  valleys  and  uplands 
of  Northern  New  York,  the  men  of  New  England, 
of  New  Jersey,  and  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  South, 
recognized  kindred  spirits,  and  with  high  devotion 
to  the  essential  truths  of  their  faith,  united  in  wor- 
ship and  work.  This  spirit  culminated  in  the 
"  Plan  of  Union  "  of  1799  and  1802,  whereby  Con- 
gregationalists  and  Presbyterians  united  in  common 
congregations  and  in  common  courts  of  jurisdiction. 
Dr.  John  Rodgers  of  New  York  was  the  author  of 
the  plan,  and  Dr.  Ashbel  Green  in  the  General  As- 
sembly of  1790  proposed  the  convention  of  the  two 
communions. 

The  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century  was,  in  that 
Johannean  benignity  and  fraternization,  in  closer 
sympathy  with  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century, 
than  with  the  fathers  of  fifty  years  ago,  when  the 
Union  was  ruptured  into  the  Old  and  New  School 
branches,  in  the  Ranstead  Court  Tabernacle  of 
Philadelphia.  During  the  opening  decades  of  the 
century  the  union  was  a  girdle  of  strength  to  Pres- 
byterianism.  It  won  for  it,  by  natural  affinit}',  the 
splendid  synods  of  Northern  and  Eastern  New  York, 
which  have  fed  the  national  metropolis  and  its  teem- 
ing centers  of  population  with  virile  and  generous 
blood,  and  with  vigorous  and  cultured  brain,  that 
have  enriched  the  Church  and  the  nation.  When 
the  century  began,  according  to  the  reports  of  1801, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  57 

there  were  in  that  section  twenty-six  ministers, 
forty-two  churches  and  about  2,300  communicants. 
To-day  Presbyterianism  holds  the  strongest  posi- 
tions therein  with  a  masterful  hand,  and  numbers 
891  ministers,  744  churches  and  135,065  communi- 
cants. 

This  is  not  all.  Still  westward  held  "  the  course 
of  empire."  Along  the  old  Indian  trails,  and  over 
the  route  by  which  passed  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
and  the  Canadian  fur  traders,  and  the  French  bat- 
talions in  their  struggle  with  the  British  for  the 
new  continent,  by  lake  and  bridle  path,  and  down 
the  valley  of  the  Allegheny  moved  the  New  Eng- 
land Puritans  and  the  New  York  Plan-of-Union 
Presbyterians. 

The  stream  divided.  Part  of  it  took  the  middle 
trail  along  which  the  Ulster  migration  moved,  and 
lodged  at  Marietta,  thus  planting  in  Southern  Ohio 
an  element  that  left  decided  traces  upon  Presby- 
terian history.  But  the  chief  current  was  directed 
toward  the  "  Western  Eeserve,"  the  northeast  cor- 
ner of  the  Ohio  territory,  the  title  to  whose  soil 
had  been  reserved  by  the  State  of  Connecticut  when 
she  surrendered  her  claims  to  eminent  domain  under 
her  colonial  charter.1 

1  Connecticut's  charter  gave  her  claim  to  the  zone  lying  between 
the  forty-first  and  forty-second  parallels  westward.  Of  this  3,800,- 
000  acres  were  reserved.  Virginia  in  like  manner  reserved  nearly 
four  and  a  quarter  million  acres  between  the  Scioto  and  the  Little 
Miami  Rivers  (about  one-sixth  of  the  State)  to  satisfy  the  claims  of 
her  continental  soldiers. 


58  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Thither  rolled  the  white-topped  wagons  of  the 
migrating  children  of  the  Puritans.  They  brought 
with  them  the  Church  and  the  school.  Presby- 
terianism  was  rooted  in  the  new  soil.  Along  the 
pebbled  beach  of  Lake  Erie,  in  Cleveland,  the 
"  Forest  Tree  City,"  now  the  metropolis  of  that 
section,  and  in  the  counties  tributary  thereto,  a 
lodgment  was  made  for  our  Church  and  our  ecclesi- 
astical principles,  which  has  been  a  seeding  center 
of  influence  for  Ohio  and  the  whole  Middle-west, 
Southwest  and  Northwest. 

In  the  first  decade  of  the  century  the  number  of 
Presbyterian  communicants  in  that  center  was  but 
a  handful.  To-day  there  is  an  enrollment  in  that 
corner  of  Ohio  alone,  of  198  ministers,  174  churches, 
and  30,465  communicants. 

These  settlements  pushed  down  from  the  West- 
ern Reserve  to  the  line  of  Columbiana  and  Stark 
counties,  where  the  settlements  met  the  confluent 
streams  of  the  Scotch-Irish  and  German  Reformed 
migration,  with  whom  Presbytery  was  the  dominant 
form.  To-day,  chiefly  owing  to  the  assimilation  of 
Presbyterianism  by  the  Puritan  stock  of  Northern 
New  York,  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  in  the 
Buckeye  State,  the  home  land  of  Grant  and  Sher- 
man, Sheridan  and  McPherson,  of  Garfield  and 
Harrison  and  McKinley, — seventeen  Presbyteries, 
633  ministers,  646  churches,  nearly  100,000  com- 
municants, and  90,000  Sunday-school  scholars.  In 
institutions  of  learning  of  high  and  lower  grade 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  59 

for  men  and  women,  and  youth ;  in  noble  charities 
and  in  all  the  elements  and  accessories  of  advanced 
Christian  civilization,  in  deep-seated  and  far-reach- 
ing influence  for  the  general  welfare  of  the  Middle- 
west,  Northwest  and  Southwest,  who  can  weigh  the 
value  of  that  planting  of  Presbyterianism  in  the 
eastern  border  of  Ohio  ?  What  a  vast  stride  for- 
ward from  that  day  of  small  things  when  the  com- 
mittee of  Domestic  Missions  in  Philadelphia  sent 
out  in  1805,  James  Hoge  of  Virginia,  as  a  missionary 
to  "  the  State  of  Ohio  and  the  Natchez  district " ; 
and  in  the  next  year  (1806)  renewed  the  commission 
to  "  the  State  of  Ohio  and  the  adjacent  parts  "  ! 
»  "We  have  followed  the  chief  contributory  streams 
of  New  England  Puritanism  as  it  fed,  directed,  and 
modified,  the  course  of  Presbyterian  history  and 
influence.  But  there  were  many  divergent  and 
independent  streamlets,  which  are  more  difficult  to 
trace,  but  which  in  the  aggregate  made  important 
accessions  to  the  Church  in  membership  and  espe- 
cially in  the  ministry.  The  great  colleges  of  New 
England,  particularly  Yale,  supplied  many  of  the 
early  ministers  to  the  scattered  Presbyterian  con- 
gregations of  the  Middle  and  Southern  States.  New 
England  gave  Jedediah  Andrews,  the  first  pastor  of 
the  mother  church  of  Philadelphia,  and  a  command 
ing  figure  in  the  organization,  about  1705,  of  "  The 
Presbytery,"  as  the  name  always  appears  on  the 
early  records,  meaning  the  General  Presbytery,  and 
the  only  court  properly  so  designated. 


60  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

The  influence  of  New  England  Puritans  was 
marked  in  the  development  of  Princeton  Uni- 
versity, which  has  so  strongly  modified  the  char- 
acter of  our  Church,  for  Princeton  has  always  been 
cosmopolitan.  It  went  to  New  England  for 
Jonathan  Edwards ;  to  Virginia  for  the  eloquent 
Davies;  to  Scotland  for  the  incomparable  John 
Witherspoon,  and  for  James  McCosh,  whose  colossal 
intellect  was  coupled  with  a  child's  charming  sim- 
plicity ;  and  it  went  to  the  British  West  Indies  for 
its  last,  and  not  least  distinguished  president. 

Time  would  fail  to  call  the  roll  of  the  good  and 
great  New  England  men,  whose  life  work  has  been 
wrought  into  the  spiritual  and  mental  and  material 
growth  of  our  Church  and  its  affiliated  branches. 
New  England  gave  those  devout  missionaries  to  the 
Indians,  David  and  John  Brainerd ;  and  the  story 
of  David's  life  written  by  Jonathan  Edwards  was  a 
clarion  call  to  many  consecrated  evangelists.  There 
was  Gardiner  Spring,  a  veritable  metropolitan  bishop, 
the  successor  of  John  Rodgers,  and  the  predecessor 
of  such  preachers  as  James  O.  Murray,  the  younger 
Yan  Dyke,  and  Maltbie  Babcock.  Adams,  the 
stately  and  courteous,  a  noble  type  of  the  old 
school  gentleman,  and  of  the  new  school  divine  ; 
Professor  Shedd,  a  thinker  clear  as  crystal  and  as 
solid ;  Smith,  keen,  incisive  and  eloquent ;  Lyman 
Beecher,  "the  noblest  Roman  "of  all  that  name; 
and  Henry  Ward,  whose  bright  early  manhood  was 
given    to    our    Church ;    Beeman,   Wells,   Finney, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  61 

Hatfield — we  might  point  to  constellation  upon 
constellation  of  shining  clerical  lights  of  New- 
England  birth  and  parentage.  Morse,  who  taught 
the  lightning  to  talk ;  Cyrus  Field,  who  bridged 
the  ocean  and  bound  Europe  to  America,  and 
linked  the  continents  together ;  Henry  Field,  editor, 
author,  traveler,  whose  facile  pen  has  charmed 
thousands  of  readers ;  Samuel  J.  Mills,  the  father 
of  American  Foreign  Missions,  who  fell  asleep 
ashipboard  while  returning  from  his  evangelistic 
visit  to  Liberia,  and  awaits  the  hour  when  the  sea 
shall  give  up  its  dead ;  Jedediah  Chapman,  moder- 
ator of  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey  in 
1797,  and  first  moderator  of  the  Synod  of  Albany 
in  1803 ;  Seth  Williston  and  Jedediah  Bushnell,  a 
rare  trio  of  missionary  evangelists  who  set  North- 
eastern New  York  aflame  in  the  revival  of  1799, — 
these  were  all  New  England  men. 

Samuel  Parker,  who  heard  the  strange  and 
romantic  call  of  the  "  Wise  men  of  the  "West,"  and, 
though  past  the  imaginary  "dead-line  of  fifty," 
penetrated  the  wilds  of  Oregon  to  preach  to  the 
Indians,  was  a  New  England  man.  So  was  Marcus 
Whitman,  who  saved  to  the  United  States  Oregon 
and  the  Northwest,  from  the  clutch  of  the  British 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  whose  sound  claims  to 
the  honor  cannot  be  shaken  by  literary  criticism. 
Kent,  Little,  Riggs,  the  Pond  brothers,  and  Dr. 
Williamson,  the  pioneer  of  Minnesota, — these  and 
many  more  of  the  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  great 


62  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

missionary  campaign,  which,  marked  the  early  dec- 
ade of  the  nineteenth  century,  were  given  to  our 
Church  by  New  England. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  laymen  of  New 
England  lineage  and  blood  ?  Noble  men,  "  princes 
of  the  Church,"  indeed ;  munificent  contributors  to 
every  worthy  cause,  and  active  helpers  in  every 
good  work,  the  savor  of  their  generous  gifts  and 
devoted  lives  breathes  through  the  charitable, 
educational  and  missionary  institutions  of  our 
Church,  of  the  country,  and  of  the  world !  One 
hesitates  to  name  a  few  where  there  are  so  many, 
but  many  of  you  will  think  of  the  names  of  Butler, 
Brown,  Dodge,  Day,  Eollins,  Tappan.  If  you  seek 
a  present  example,  behold  in  the  honored  chairman 
of  this  morning's  commemorative  service,  a  child 
of  New  England,  whom  every  Presbyterian  and 
every  Philadelphian  honors  and  loves,  for  what  he 
is  as  well  as  for  what  he  has  done — John  H.  Con- 
verse. 

II 

The  Scotch-Ikish  Element   in  the  Making 
of  the  chukch 

Turn  now  to  another  and  parallel  stream  of 
migration  that  largely  influenced  the  progress  of 
our  history.  It  might  well  be  a  theme  for  equal 
debate  whether  New  England  Puritans  or  the 
Scotch-Irish  Puritans,  have  more  largely  molded 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  63 

the  history  of  our  Church  as  it  greets  the  twentieth 
century.  If  we  exclude  from  consideration  our 
Southern  sister  and  the  Cumberland  branch,  the 
question  is  more  doubtful.  But  descending  from 
the  northern  range  of  settlements,  from  New  York 
westward,  to  those  that  lie  along  the  valleys  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  the  influence  of  the  Ulster 
Scots  was  predominant. 

It  was  a  wonderful  development,  during  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that  sent  ships  of 
Britain  loaded  with  families,  churches  and  com- 
munities, from  the  ports  of  Northern  Ireland  to  the 
colonies.  The  folly  of  the  English  rulers  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  the  friendliest  factor  in  the 
making  of  America  and  her  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  migration  following  the  potato  famine  in  the 
middle  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
Celtic,  and  has  made  the  Latin  communion  the 
foremost  in  numbers  of  the  great  American 
Churches.  But  the  migration  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  Protestant  and  Presbyterian.  Had  it 
not  been  for  the  unhappy  divisions,  and  the  lack  of 
central  and  controlling  agencies,  the  Presbyterian 
Church  to-day  might  equal  in  numbers  that  of  her 
ancient  antagonist.  But  as  our  fathers  were  wont  to 
say, "  Nothing  happens — to  a  Presbyterian !"  Doubt- 
less, one  of  our  foreordained  functions  has  been 
to  feed  other  denominations  with  our  spiritual 
power  and  wealth  of  vigor,  intellect  and  money. 
Certainly,   "the   godly   consideration   of   predesti- 


64  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

nation,"  to  quote  the  language  of  the  Episcopalian 
Articles  of  Keligion,  (Art.  XVII),  "  is  full  of  sweet, 
pleasant  and  unspeakable  comfort," — at  times ! 
Not  long  ago  your  Committee  on  Kevision  held  a 
sitting  in  our  Capitol  City,  and  were  honored  with 
a  reception  by  President  McKinley. 

"  I  understand,"  the  President  remarked  to  our 
stated  clerk,  "  that  you  have  met  to  revise  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith ! " 

"  "We  are  met  to  consider  the  matter,"  was  the 
diplomatic  answer. 

"Well,"  said  the  President,  "I  hope,  whatever 
you  do,  that  you  will  not  revise  out  of  it  the  doc- 
trine of  predestination ! " 

Is  not  that  a  rare  example  of  the  "  survival  of 
the  fittest "  ?  There  spoke,  through  the  lips  of  our 
Methodist  President,  the  long  and  goodly  genera- 
tions of  his  Presbyterian  ancestors. 

To-day  our  President  waits  in  yon  far  land  of 
flowers,  whose  fragrance  breathes  upon  this  as- 
sembly from  the  Moderator's  chair,  to  learn  the 
will  of  the  heavenly  Father  concerning  his  beloved 
wife.  As  he  sits  in  sorrow  and  anxiety  at  the  bed- 
side of  the  good  woman  whom  he  led,  in  her  fair, 
bright  maidenhood,  to  the  marriage  altar  in  a 
Presbyterian  Church  of  the  Buckeye  State,  the 
heart  of  this  nation  beats  in  sympathy  with  him. 
Let  this  venerable  court,  this  vast  assembly  unite 
in  a  moment  of  silent  prayer  that  his  heart's  desire 
and  beloved  may  be  spared !     Or,  should  the  pur- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  65 

pose  of  God  be  otherwise,  may  our  chief  magistrate 
have  grace  to  bow  before  the  divine  decree,  and 
say :  "  Thy  will,  not  mine,  be  done !  It  is  the  Lord ; 
let  him  do  as  seemeth  him  good  ! "  ' 

In  the  retrospect  of  the  century,  we  as  a  Church 
may  take  consolation  in  the  thought  that,  through 
our  predestined  calling  to  fertilize  the  Church 
catholic  and  mankind  in  general,  every  Protestant 
Communion  in  America  is  far  richer  in  every 
element  of  disciplined  service  and  spiritual  success, 
because  of  the  good  blue  blood  of  Presbyterianism 
that  has  been  poured  within  their  veins.  And  the 
destiny  that  has  drained  our  arteries  for  the  benefit 
of  sister  communions  appears  still  to  be  operative ! 

When  the  distinguished  Roman  Catholic  prelate, 
Archbishop  Ryan,  came  to  Philadelphia,  receptions 
were  tendered  him,  to  which  came  citizens  of  all 
Christian  Churches.  Among  others  he  was  pre- 
sented to  a  gentleman  now  in  high  official  position 
in  the  State,  as  "  the  descendant  of  a  family  [the 
Latta  family],  that  for  175  years  has  had  contin- 
uously a  representative  in  the  Presbyterian  ministry 
of  the  United  States  and  colonies."  With  that 
suavity  which  marks  the  Archbishop's  manners,  he 
took    the    gentleman's    hand,   and  bowing,   said : 

1  The  writer,  when  he  opened  his  manuscripts  early  in  October 
(1901)  to  prepare  them  for  the  press,  was  startled  as  he  re-read 
these  words  in  the  shadow  of  our  nation's  loss,  and  in  the  light  of 
President  McKinley's  dying  words  :  4<  It  is  God's  way.  His  will 
be  done  !  " 
5 


66  TWENTIETH   CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

"  Sir,  I  am  glad,  since  you  are  not  of  our  Church, 
that  you  at  least  belong  to  a  disciplined  religion !  " 

What  a  ringing  phrase  that  is — "  a  disciplined 
religion  "/  It  was  a  tribute  of  strength  to  strength. 
In  many  a  hard  fought  field,  in  Ireland  and  else- 
where, Eomanism  and  her  representatives  have 
learned  to  respect  their  stout  antagonist  of  the  Pres- 
byterian fold.  It  is  a  satisfaction  for  us  to  believe 
that  if  we  have  lost  so  much  by  transfusion  of 
blood,  other  Churches  have  gained  by  accessions  of 
that  devotion  to  duty  and  divine  truth  which  have 
made  our  fathers  and  our  fold  the  types  of  "a 
disciplined  religion."  May  the  day  be  distant  far 
when  the  Church  that  we  love  shall  cease  to  be 
distinguished,  by  friend  or  by  foe,  as  the  represent- 
ative of  a  religion  whose  pure  biblical  doctrines, 
primitive  order,  and  hereditary  trend  and  tradi- 
tions, contribute  to  the  making  of  strong  and  up- 
right characters,  thoroughly  disciplined  in  every 
good  word  and  work !  Certainly,  our  Scotch-Irish 
forbears  were  possessed  of  a  disciplined  religion  ! 

Philadelphia  was  the  chief  though  by  no  means 
the  only  port  of  entrance  for  the  Scotch-Irish  im- 
migration, and  thence  westward  and  southward 
along  Pennsylvania's  valleys  the  human  stream 
flowed.  It  broke  through  the  barrier  of  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountains,  leaving  in  its  course  many  lonely 
graves  by  wilderness  trails,  or  in  the  rude  church- 
yards of  log  cabin  sanctuaries  in  the  forest.  The 
tide   swirled   for  awhile  around  the  forks  of  the 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  67 

Ohio,  leaving  its  settlements  on  the  rich  uplands 
and  in  the  fat  bottom  lands,  and  then  swept  on 
into  Kentucky  and  the  southwest  territory.  At 
these  points,  especially  in  Western  Pennsylvania, 
the  new  society  grew  into  lusty  youth,  and 
gathered  vigor  for  that  great  forward  movement 
which  marked  the  latter  decades  of  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  and  which  Ave  are  yet  to 
consider. 

Naturally,  this  Ulster  migration  was  distributed 
along  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  as  far  south  as  Georgia 
and  the  Carolinas.  There,  also,  colonies  of  High- 
land Scotch  made  lodgment;  among  them  that 
Flora  MacDonald,  whose  name  is  so  romantically 
associated  in  history  with  the  escape  of  the  pre- 
tender, Prince  Charles  Edward.  A  picture  of  the 
so-called  "  Barbecue  "  Presbyterian  Church,  where 
Flora  and  her  husband,  Alan  MacDonald,  wor- 
shiped, has  been  preserved,  and  may  be  seen  by 
the  curious.  The  famous  Revolutionary  partisan, 
Sergeant  MacDonald,  was  of  that  Highland  clan, 
although  most  of  his  clansmen  were  royalists,  the 
almost  unique  exception  to  the  political  status  of 
Presbyterians  during  the  Revolutionary  period. 
This  introduces  a  fact  which  we  may  pause  a 
moment  to  emphasize,  for  the  American  Revolution 
had  a  vital  influence  upon  the  progressive  develop- 
ment of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

General  Francis  Marion's  men,  rank  and  file,  were 
largely  drawn  from  the  Scotch-Irish,  and  it  was  the 


68  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

"Williamsburg  settlers  of  that  stock  who  put  Marion 
into  leadership.  It  was  from  these  Southern  Pres- 
byterians that  came  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration, 
one  of  the  earliest  notes  of  Colonial  independence, 
although  the  utterance  was  paralleled  by  the  acts 
of  their  congeners  in  the  back  counties  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  famous  Rifle  Brigade  of  General  Daniel 
Morgan  was  drawn  chiefly  from  the  same  stock ; 
and  although  Morgan  was  a  Virginian,  the  bulk  of 
his  corps  was  enlisted  from  the  sturdy  settlers  of 
the  southern  and  central  valleys  of  Pennsylvania, 
whose  "  Associators  "  and  "  Liberty-men,"  were  dis- 
ciplined by  conflict  with  the  border  savage,  and 
used  to  the  long  rifled  weapon  which  was  then  a 
new  arm  in  warfare,  and  which  Napoleon  greatly 
admired. 

It  was  the  same  stock  that  fought  and  won  the 
battle  of  King's  Mountain,  every  regiment  of  the 
Colonial  forces  there  engaged  being  commanded  by 
a  colonel  who,  according  to  tradition,  was  a  Pres- 
byterian, most  of  them  ruling  elders.  Of  one  of 
these  battalions  it  is  related  that  the  men  gathered 
around  their  chaplain  before  the  conflict  began, 
and  with  uncovered  head,  leaning  upon  their  rifles, 
bowed  before  God  in  supplication.  Their  spiritual 
leader  closed  his  prayer  with  the  ringing  sentence, 
"  The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon  !  "  As  by 
one  impulse,  they  raised  their  hands  aloft,  like  the 
old  Covenanters  in  the  act  of  adjuration,  and  re- 
peated in  chorus,  as  though  it  were  a  battle  cry,  the 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  69 

chaplain's  closing  words  :  "  The  sword  of  the  Lord 
and  of  Gideon  !  "  No  wonder  such  men  were  in- 
vincible ! 

General  Daniel  Morgan  died  an  elder  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  Is  it  to  his  discredit  that  be- 
fore the  battle  of  Cowpens  he  climbed  into  a  bushy 
tree,  and,  secluded  from  the  eyes  of  his  comrades, 
bowed  in  prayer  to  the  God  of  battles  for  forgive- 
ness of  sin  and  for  victory  over  his  foes  ?  It  is 
needless  to  enumerate  examples.  In  truth  the  chief 
burden  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle  fell  upon  the 
descendants  of  New  England  Puritans,  and  of  the 
Ulster  Presbyterians,  shared  in  less  proportion  but 
almost  equal  ardor  by  the  Germans  of  Pennsylvania 
and  the  Hollanders  of  New  York.  No  review  of 
the  progress  of  our  Church  can  omit  some  reference 
to  the  struggle  for  Colonial  independence. 

It  was  but  another  stage  in  our  ecclesiastical  evo- 
lution. It  was  the  destiny  which  a  higher  power 
controlled.  But  it  is  not  strange  that  the  Ulster- 
men  threw  themselves  heart  and  soul  thereinto,  and 
were  among  the  first  and  most  uncompromising 
supporters  of  independence.  To  them  it  was  a 
strike  for  liberty,  from  not  only  civil  but  ecclesias- 
tical disabilities  and  annoyances  that  had  driven 
them  and  their  forbears  from  Ireland.  It  seems  a 
far  cry  from  Lord  Cornbury  and  his  oppressive  as- 
sault upon  liberty  of  worship,  in  the  persons  of 
Francis  Mackemie  and  John  Hampton  in  the  Coun- 
cil House  at  Fort  Anne,  New  York,  in  1706,  to  the 


70  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

immortal  deed  of  1776  in  Independence  Hall,  which 
John  Witherspoon,  Presbyterian  clergyman,  advo- 
cated, and  Charles  Thomson,  Presbyterian  elder,  re- 
corded. But  in  fact  the  note  ran  all  through  the 
intervening  years.  You  may  still  see  the  original 
document  with  the  seal  of  the  King's  privy  council, 
dated  1767,  which  sets  forth  the  reason,  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  English  Established  Church,  why  the 
First  Presbyterian  congregation  of  New  York 
should  be  denied  a  charter ! 

Elsewhere  Presbyterian  worshipers  were  ham- 
pered or  harried.  Although  there  was  much  liberty 
in  many  parts,  and  absolute  liberty  in  some,  there 
was  always  the  possibility  that  under  English  rule, 
the  old  odious  conditions  in  Ireland  might  be  ap- 
plied to  the  Colonies.  Hence  the  passion  for  abso- 
lute liberty  of  conscience,  and  the  wish  and  motive 
for  separation.  It  was  the  promulgation  of  a  new 
civil  code  for  mankind,  from  the  political  Mount 
Sinai  of  the  new  world,  Independence  Hall,  which 
declared  the  equality  of  individuals  before  the  law, 
and  the  equal  right  of  all  men  to  life,  liberty  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness.  The  barons  of  England,  in 
the  days  of  King  John,  framed  the  Magna  Charta 
of  civil  rights  for  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  Britain. 
The  political  fathers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  of  the  Constitution,  made  the  Maxima 
Charta,  not  only  for  the  Colonies  but  for  the  human 
race. 

In  that  noble  deed,  and  in  its  precedent  and  sub- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  71 

sequent  incidents,  your  ecclesiastical  fathers  had  a 
conspicuous  share.  Presbyterians  are  never  called 
upon  to  explain  or  apologize  for  the  part  which 
their  fathers  took  as  individuals  and  as  churchmen, 
in  pulpit  and  pew,  in  the  courts  of  the  Church,  and 
in  foughten  fields  where  destiny  was  settled  by  the 
arbitrament  of  war.  In  these  days  of  patriotic  so- 
cieties and  celebrations,  the  honors  assigned  to 
Presbyterian  clergymen  may  be  somewhat  dispro- 
portionate. But  in  those  days,  when  hard  knocks 
were  to  be  given  and  received,  and  the  high  fate  of 
the  nation  was  to  be  wrought  out,  Presbyterians 
had  no  lack  of  such  honors  as  were  to  be  won  by 
hardships,  by  sufferings,  by  wounds  and  death  in 
camp  and  field.  It  is  surprising  how  many  "  sons  " 
and  "  daughters  "  of  the  American  Kevolution,  and 
of  kindred  modern  associations,  when  they  hark 
backward  for  a  patriotic  pedigree,  find  their  claim 
to  honorable  standing  hinging  upon  the  lusty  deeds 
of  some  Scotch-Irish  or  other  Presbyterian  an- 
cestor ! 

We  have  here  dwelt  at  length  upon  the  chief 
racial  elements  that  contributed  to  establish  Ameri- 
can Presbyterianism,  but  we  do  not  forget  that  the 
good  blood  of  nations  which  represented  other 
branches  of  the  great  ecclesiastical  family  of  the 
Reformed,  has  been  transfused  into  our  veins.  The 
Church  of  Holland,  whose  sturdy  children  planted 
their  seats  on  Manhattan  Island  and  along  the 
Hudson,  has  always  recognized  our  close  kinship, 


72  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

and  the  ministers  of  the  two  Communions  have 
freely  passed  from  one  to  the  other.  That  we  have 
not  suffered  by  the  exchange  appears  from  some  of 
the  historic  names  of  the  living  and  the  dead  upon 
our  rolls  :  van  Rensselaer,  van  Dyke,  van  Norden, 
Talmage,  De  Witt. 

The  sons  of  the  Palatinate,  too,  have  found  a 
place  among  us.  The  first  emigrants  of  the  Ger- 
man Reformed  were  fostered  by  our  Colonial  fa- 
thers of  the  eighteenth  century  until  they  could  fend 
for  themselves.  The  Classis  of  Amsterdam  gave 
them  ecclesiastical  mothering  and  substantial  aid. 
Thus  our  pioneer  days  send  down  to  us  a  happy 
foretoken  of  that  "  Alliance  of  Reformed  Churches 
holding  the  Presbyterian  System,"  known  under  the 
popular  name  of  "  Pan-Presbyterian."  Our  rolls 
abound  in  German  names,  derived  from  the  original 
Palatinate  stock  and  from  the  late  migration. 
Among  them  there  is  one  name  that  has  shone  in 
the  world  of  scholars  with  especial  luster,  Professor 
Philip  Schaff.  So,  too,  the  Huguenots  have  left 
their  impress  upon  our  history,  easily  dropping  into 
our  ranks  and  bringing  to  us  a  glint  of  their  vivac- 
ity, and  a  touch  of  that  vigorous  faith  which 
marked  their  great  leaders, — Calvin,  Coligni,  Farel. 

Nor  must  we  forget  among  those  early  elements 
of  strength  the  Calvinistic  Church  of  Wales. 
Welshmen  were  among  our  first  colonists,  and  have 
left  their  trail,  particularly  in  the  early  Quaker 
settlements,  in  the  names  of  many  Pennsylvania 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  73 

towns  and  neighborhoods.  We  can  trace  them 
upon  our  records  by  such  names  as  Edwards,  Evans, 
Lewis,  Jones,  Morris,  and  Roberts. 

Ill 

The  Pioneer  Presbyters  and  their  Flocks 

The  conquest  of  independence  changed  the  des- 
tiny of  our  Church  and  set  it  upon  its  wider  sphere 
and  world-wide  career.  There  were  only  thirty- 
four  men  in  the  General  Assembly  of  1799,  one- 
twentieth  of  the  membership  of  this  Twentieth 
Century  Assembly.  There  were  only  fifty-six  com- 
missioners, thirty-six  ministers  and  twenty  elders, 
in  the  Assembly  of  1801.  But  the  great  step  had 
been  taken  toward  a  large  and  unfettered  growth. 
The  barriers  to  national  and  ecclesiastical  develop- 
ment and  union  had  been  burned  away  in  the 
fervor  of  war,  and  all  obstacles  melted  down  be- 
fore the  newborn  enthusiasm  for  liberty,  for  exten- 
sion, for  a  continental  domain. 

The  losses  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  during  the 
Eevolution  were  great  in  members  killed,  wounded, 
and  fallen  by  disease ;  in  destroyed  churches ;  in 
scattered  congregations ;  in  impoverished  individ- 
uals and  families,  and  in  the  lapsed  and  indifferent, 
the  inevitable  consequence  of  a  protracted  war. 
The  eighteenth  century  left  our  Church  with  a 
communion  membership  at  the  utmost  numbering 
20,000,  and  it  was  probably  one-quarter  less  than 


74  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

that  figure.  But  it  was  blest  with  leaders  who 
were  possessed  with  a  quenchless  zeal  for  souls. 

National  sovereignty  cut  loose  the  Colonies  from 
dependence  upon  the  mother  country,  and  threw 
upon  ministers  and  people  the  whole  responsibility 
for  evangelizing  the  land.  Nobly  they  rose  to  the 
occasion.  In  all  the  new  Republic,  when  the  nine- 
teenth century  dawned,  there  were  in  round  num- 
bers 200  (183)  ministers,  and  500  (449)  churches. 
They  were  widely  separated  from  one  another. 
Single  bishoprics  embraced  a  whole  Presbytery  and 
sometimes  an  entire  state.  Families  dwelt  in  log 
cabins  in  "  the  forest  primeval,"  amidst  scant  clear- 
ings whose  open  spaces  and  "  blazed  "  trees  showed 
where  settlers  had  made  homes.  As  the  pioneer 
presbyters  passed  to  and  fro,  they  knew  not  when 
the  lurking  savage  might  break  out  of  the  solitude 
upon  them;  and  their  crude  records  abound  in 
references  to  the  ever-impending  peril  of  the  Indian 
raid.  Their  salaries  were  pitifully  small,  payable 
wholly  or  in  part  in  "  good  merchantable  wheat," 
and  often  unpaid  or  paid  tardily.  No  "Lady 
Bountiful"  was  there  to  share  parish  cares;  no 
princely  men  of  affairs  to  bear  the  financial  burden 
of  new  enterprises;  no  Boards  with  experienced, 
faithful  and  intelligent  secretaries,  the  general 
pastors  of  the  Church,  to  stimulate  and  support 
exertion. 

If  you  seek  for  the  just  records  of  home  mis- 
sions, look  over  the  minutes  of  the  early  synods  and 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  75 

presbytery.  Every  minister  was  a  missionary. 
From  college  president  down  to  the  leathern 
breeched  apostle  of  the  far  frontier,  they  were 
evangelists  all !  With  the  spirit  of  the  preaching 
friars  of  the  middle  ages,  or  better  comparison  still, 
with  the  spirit  of  the  apostles  of  the  primitive  age, 
they  went  from  settlement  to  settlement,  riding 
through  the  lone  forest,  camping  at  night  in  open 
woods,  possessed  with  the  consuming  desire  to 
found  a  Church,  to  administer  the  Sacraments,  to 
gather  and  save  the  scattered  sheep  of  the  Ameri- 
can wilderness. 

They  were  in  perils  in  the  forest ;  in  perils  by 
river  ;  in  perils  by  slough  and  swamp ;  in  perils  from 
savage  beasts  and  more  savage  men ;  in  perils  from 
their  own  countrymen,  whose  nefarious  deeds  they 
thwarted  and  whose  iniquity  they  rebuked ;  in 
perils  from  winter  blizzard  and  summer  heats ;  in 
perils  by  fevers,  by  malaria,  from  contagious  dis- 
eases. Amidst  all  these  and  innumerable  priva- 
tions, they  pressed  forward,  bearing  the  standard 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  gospel,  planting  humble 
organizations  and  rearing  humble  sanctuaries  that 
to-day  have  grown  into  the  great  churches  and 
beautiful  temples  in  which  twentieth  century  Pres- 
byterians "praise  God,  from  whom  all  blessings 
flow."  It  is  due  to  them,  fathers  and  brethren,  that 
to-day  we  may  number  our  own  great  host,  and 
cast  our  eyes  over  our  vigorous  offshoots  of  the 
Southern   and  Cumberland  Churches,  and   in   the 


76  TWENTIETH  CENTUM Y  ADDRESSES 

spirit  of  the  patriarch  Jacob  exclaim,  "  With  my  staff 
I  crossed  the  border  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
lo,  I  am  become  three  bands  !  "  The  fifteen  thou- 
sand souls  which  our  Church  led,  by  the  dawning 
light  of  the  nineteenth  century,  into  the  wilderness 
reaches  of  the  nation's  vast  and  vacant  territories, 
number  now  a  million  and  a  half  in  actual  Church 
communion. 

No  wonder  those  men  found  the  most  fitting 
emblem  to  put  upon  the  seal  of  their  newly-organ- 
ized General  Assembly  in  the  well-known  device, 
printed  on  the  title  page  of  their  loved  Genevan 
Bibles,  and  upon  the  first  English  edition  of  Calvin's 
Institutes, — the  brazen  serpent  uplifted  upon  the 
Cross !  The  conception  which  the  fathers  and 
founders  had  of  the  high  mission  committed  to 
them  was,  that  they  stood  in  the  wilderness  of  the 
New  "World  to  uplift  before  perishing  souls  the  one 
and  only  saving  remedy  for  sin-ruined  men.  How 
faithfully  they  fulfilled  their  Heaven-appointed 
duty,  let  the  reports  and  records  of  this  day  declare. 

And  what  rare  heroes  and  heroines  composed 
these  few  and  scattered  flocks  of  those  missionary 
bishops  !  Weary  with  hard  conflict  with  the  forest ; 
with  domestic  duties  done  under  severest  condi- 
tions ;  with  the  necessity  to  fly  the  Indian  foe,  and 
with  the  wearying  fret  of  continual  guard  against 
him;  enervated  by  fevers  and  racked  by  chills^ 
those  pioneers  had  before  them  the  mightiest  and 
loftiest  problem  that  God  gives  to  mortals.     A  so- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  77 

ciety  was  to  be  organized ;  a  Church  to  be  estab- 
lished, a  State  to  be  founded ;  schools  and  colleges 
were  to  be  instituted ;  social  order  and  civilization 
were  to  be  built  up  in  the  midst  of  a  wilderness 
land. 

They  found  the  wilderness  a  social  chaos,  "  with- 
out form  and  void."  The  divine  Spirit  within 
them  brooded  over  those  forest  deeps,  those  prairie 
reaches  and  mountain  heights,  and  there  came  forth 
order  and  law  and  holy  faith.  They  spoke,  in  the 
name  of  the  great  Jehovah  and  his  divine  Son,  the 
old  creative  word,  "  Fiat  lux ! "  "  Let  there  be 
light ! "  And  there  was  light.  The  people  no 
longer  sat  in  darkness.  A  new  people  occupied  the 
primitive  vacant  seats,  and  because  of  those  faith- 
ful pioneers,  the  wilderness  blossoms  as  a  rose- 
Sublime  men!  Heroic  women!  They  undertook 
their  Titanic  task  as  unconscious  of  their  own  great- 
ness and  the  magnitude  of  their  achievements,  as 
those  depicted  by  our  Lord  at  the  final  judgment, 
who  in  the  true  spirit  of  heroic  humility  questioned 
the  divine  Judge  as  to  when  they  had  wrought  the 
worthy  deeds  on  which  approval  was  pronounced  ? 
They  were  plain  men,  rudely-clad,  uncouth  in  their 
manners  at  times,  yet  many  of  them  with  the  old- 
fashioned  graces  of  gentlemen  and  ladies.  Their 
herculean  labor  was  heroically  done,  and  the  ver- 
dict of  history  is  that,  which,  we  dare  believe,  al- 
ready has  been  spoken  in  the  High  Court  of  God  : 
"  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servants !  " 


78  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDBESSES 

The  environment  of  the  American  Church  has 
greatly  influenced  its  progressive  development. 
Our  fathers  had  a  vast  and  virgin  field  on  which  to 
train  men  and  women,  without  the  trammels  of  Old 
World  customs  and  traditions,  into  the  new  ideas 
of  independence,  liberty,  manhood,  freedom  of  con- 
science, and  obligations  to  serve  the  race.  Room 
gives  opportunity.  Nothing  in  nature  needs  as 
much  room  as  a  man.  Nothing  is  capable  of  as 
large  expansion  as  a  man.  In  these  two  correlated 
facts  lie  the  secret  of  his  greatness  and  destiny. 
No  pent-up  sphere  can  hold  him  when  he  feels  the 
touch  of  the  divine  Hand,  and  the  impulse  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  moving  him  to  his  destiny. 

A  young  cedar  of  Lebanon,  and  a  seedling 
sequoia  of  the  Yosemite  occupy  much  space,  and 
they  need  room  for  complete  growth.  But  they 
stay  where  nature  has  rooted  them.  Man  not  only 
grows  on,  but  goes  on.  Even  when  he  holds  to  his 
selected  seats  he  expands  upon  them.  His  hut  be- 
comes a  house ;  his  house  a  mansion ;  his  mansion 
a  palace.  His  work  bench  develops  into  a  shop; 
the  shop  into  a  factory;  into  a  warehouse;  into 
stores.  His  canvas  tabernacle,  or  log  sanctuary,  or 
sod-house  temple  becomes  a  sanctuary  of  hewn 
logs,  of  boards,  of  brick,  and  stands  at  last  a  cathe- 
dral of  stone. 

There  was  nothing  haphazard  in  the  providence 
that  set  the  Anglo-Saxon  upon  this  continental 
sphere  for  his  development.     America  was  destined 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  79 

for,  as  it  was  given  to,  a  virile  race.  Spain,  seized 
with  an  infatuation,  fed  from  the  Vatican  and  from 
ten  thousand  pulpits  and  confessionals,  to  quench 
Protestantism,  was  expending  all  her  energies  in  a 
struggle  against  Holland  and  in  efforts  to  destroy 
Protestantism  in  Europe.  Thus,  her  attention  was 
diverted  from  North  America,  and  another  race  and 
another  faith  occupied  this  noble  domain.  We  owe 
a  larger  debt  to  that  little  land  of  the  Netherlands 
than  men  are  apt  to  estimate.  Holland,  by  her 
heroic  opposition  to  Spain,  her  long-continued 
struggle  for  national  and  religious  liberty,  held  back 
the  power  that  might  have  blighted  this  broad  and 
beautiful  land  and  stayed  the  migratory  waves 
upon  which  our  fathers  entered  and  occupied  the 
land. 

IV 

Classical  aistd  Theological  Schools 

Do  you  ask  whence  came  the  pastors  and  preach- 
ers for  these  pioneer  flocks  ?  Our  fathers  were  not 
unmindful  of  the  need  of  ministers  and  the  duty  to 
provide  a  ministry  native  to  the  soil.  The  pioneers 
did  not  find  a  short  and  easy  road  to  the  ministry. 
Most  of  them  were  educated  men,  and  graduates  of 
colleges.  All  of  them  had  an  academic  education  ; 
and  every  minister  of  influence  in  all  the  centers  of 
population  was  a  theological  seminary,  around 
whom,  as  in  the  case  of  John  McMillan  of  Wash- 


80  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

ington  County,  Pennsylvania,  gathered  a  group  of 
students. 

History  has  delighted  to  depict  our  great  mar- 
tyred President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  preparing  for  the 
responsible  duties  to  be  devolved  upon  him  in  the 
future  by  studying  the  rudiments  of  English  by  the 
light  of  a  cabin  fire.  This  was  a  common  history 
in  the  pioneer  days.  John  Watson,  the  first  presi- 
dent of  Jefferson  College  under  its  charter,  began 
his  career  as  a  clerk  and  barkeeper.  An  old  copy 
of  Horace  came  into  his  hands,  which  without  a 
grammar,  and  with  only  a  Latin  dictionary  to  guide 
him,  he  studied  by  the  light  of  a  wood  fire,  shin- 
ing from  an  old-fashioned  hearth.  He  mastered 
Horace  in  that  wise,  and  at  last  achieved  the  hon- 
orable position  in  which  he  died,  one  of  the  fore- 
most scholars  of  the  West. 

We  catch  a  glimpse  of  Charles  Beatty,  the  Irish 
pack-peddler,  at  the  door  of  the  old  Tennent  Log 
College  of  Keshaminy,  astounding  the  master  and 
his  scholars  by  offering  his  wares  in  fair  Latin. 
The  incident  settled  his  destiny,  for  Mr.  Tennent 
received  him  into  the  school,  and  he  became  an  effi- 
cient minister.  With  George  Duffield,  he  was  the 
first  to  visit  as  a  missionary  the  forests  of  Ohio,  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  red  man. 

We  see  Macurdy,  the  wagoner  of  Ligonier,  earn- 
ing by  "  teaming,"  the  simple  method  of  transporta- 
tion of  those  early  days,  the  money  which  laid  the 
foundations  of  his  useful  career.     We  see  Samuel 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  81 

Porter,  the  weaver,  rising  from  the  loom  to  the 
pulpit. 

For  that  matter,  the  race  of  self-made  ministers 
has  not  died  out.  There  is  Dr.  Yeomans,  who  cher- 
ished his  blacksmith  hammer  as  the  best  emblem  of 
his  early  manhood.  William  P.  Breed,  sweet,  gra- 
cious, pious,  witty,  a  poet,  a  naturalist,  and  a 
preacher,  we  see  closing  his  days  by  amusing  him- 
self at  the  trade  he  learned  when  he  was  a  book- 
binder's boy  in  New  York  city.  In  Central  New 
York,  a  lad  possessed  with  the  quenchless  zeal  for 
learning  which  has  characterized  the  stock  from 
which  he  sprung,  presented  himself  in  an  academic 
town  to  win  his  education.  He  entered  the  family 
and  the  employ  of  a  physician ;  he  attended  to  the 
chores  of  the  house ;  he  cared  for  the  doctor's 
horses.  He  won  the  crown  of  education  for  which 
he  struggled.  "Would  you  be  surprised  to  learn  that 
that  youth  became  the  pastor  of  one  of  the  noblest 
churches  in  the  land  "  the  mother  First "  of  Phila- 
delphia, a  past-president  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
a  professor  in  a  great  theological  seminary,  and  the 
present  president  of  the  Board  of  Aid  for  colleges, 
a  commissioner  upon  the  floor  of  this  Assembly, — 
Dr.  Herrick  Johnson !  These  are  but  typical  cases. 
The  guiding  genius  of  the  American  people  may  be 
traced  in  the  genesis  of  her  churches ;  her  worthiest 
leaders,  her  best,  her  noblest  sons  have  trod  the 
pathway  of  humble  toil  to  the  highest  seats. 

The  service  wrought  in  raising  up  an  educated 
6 


82  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

ministry  by  the  early  academies  and  colleges  and 
their  successors,  is  beyond  estimate.     There  is  no 
better  work  before  the  Church  than  to  rebuild  these 
old  foundations,  and  erect  new  ones  where  they  are 
needed.    The  tendency  of   our  great  universities, 
unless  fed  by  a  devout  constituency  and  restrained 
by  devout  and  faithful  managers,  is  to  cast  off  the 
influence  of  the  Church  and  repel  or  keep, to  a  dis- 
tance the  touch  of  religion.     At  the  best  they  are 
apt  to  be  coldly  responsive  to  the  influences  that 
make  for  piety  and  evangelical  faith.     But  the 
academies  and  small  colleges  are  accessible  to,  and 
their  students  easily  molded  by,  the  influence  of  re- 
ligion.    Let  us  care  for  them !    Let  us  hark  back  to 
the  old  methods  while  we  "consider  the  days  of 
old."     It  is  a  good  token  that  we  are  so  doing. 
"  The  wheel  has  come  full  circle  round,"  and  the 
academies  and  small  colleges  of  the  pioneer  days 
are  once  more  taking  their  place  as  the  "  semina- 
ries " — the  seeding  centers  of  pious  education. 

The  method  of  ministerial  instruction  has  been 
revolutionized  during  the  nineteenth  century. 
Most  of  our  early  academies  and  colleges  had  their 
origin  in  the  necessity  to  prepare  an  educated 
ministry  for  the  old  colonies  and  the  new  states. 
The  classical  teacher,  who  was  with  rare  exceptions 
a  clergyman,  was  also  the  teacher  of  theology.  In 
course  of  time  a  theological  professor  was  added. 
He  included  in  himself  all  the  functions  discharged 
by  the  entire  faculty  of  a  modern  seminary.     The 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  83 

work  of  the  professor  of  theology  was  frequently 
supplemented  by  or  was  the  supplement  of  private 
instruction.  Men  who  have  not  yet  reached  three- 
score and  ten,  can  remember  that  divines  of  ap- 
proved soundness  in  theology  were  resorted  to  by 
young  men  whose  thoughts  were  upon  the  sacred 
ministry,  and  who  studied  privately  in  their  houses. 
This  was  the  rule  also  in  the  professions  of  law  and 
medicine. 

It  was  not  until  the  third  year  of  the  century 
that  the  theological  seminary  was  evolved,  "  An- 
dover  "  having  been  established  in  1803.  "  Rutgers  " 
of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  followed  in  1810 ; 
and  in  our  own  Church  "  Princeton  Seminary,"  the 
original  theological  college,  was  not  founded  until 
the  beginning  of  the  second  decade  of  the  century, 
1812.  In  the  meanwhile,  Dr.  John  McMillan  was 
the  center  of  a  theological  school  annexed  to  Jeffer- 
son College  (now  Washington-Jefferson)  in  Can- 
onsburg,  "Western  Pennsylvania,  out  of  which  in 
the  course  of  time  was  developed  the  Western 
Theological  Seminary  at  Allegheny. 

The  old  methods  have  ceased,  and  from  the 
Golden  Gate  to  the  Atlantic,  there  are  established 
at  convenient  centers,  authorized  "schools  of  the 
prophets,"  manned  by  professors  of  piety,  learning, 
and  modern  culture.  Some  of  these  are  richly  en- 
dowed, by  the  munificence  of  Christ's  faithful  and 
worthy  stewards  in  the  Church ;  but  others  struggle 
on  under  great  burdens,  in  the  face  of  difficulties, 


84  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

toward  the   "  door  of  hope "  which  may  open  to 
them  a  sufficient  maintenance. 

There  are  few  of  us  who  would  go  back  to  the 
methods  of  our  fathers.  Yet,  theological  seminaries 
have  not  been  unqualified  blessings  to  the  Church, 
and  they  include  an  element  of  danger  that  needs 
to  be  vigilantly  guarded.  Ministers  whose  life 
separates  them  from  the  people  and  the  practical 
duties  of  the  pastorate,  and  whose  thoughts  are 
largely  and  often  wholly  given  to  critical  studies 
and  the  pondering,  analyzing,  and  framing  of  ab- 
struse doctrines  and  theories,  are  apt  to  acquire  a 
temper  and  habit  of  mind  which  insensibly  trend 
toward  doubt.  The  checks  and  balances  of  the 
pastorate  furnish  an  element  of  human  sympathy 
and  a  view  of  human  necessities  which  color  and 
modify  critical  processes,  and  hold  the  heart  true 
to  holy  faith.  How  many  of  the  heresies  that  have 
distressed,  disturbed,  and  weakened,  the  Christian 
Church  have  originated  with  theological  professors  ? 
Have  not  most  of  the  attacks  upon  evangelical 
religion  issued  from  theological  seminaries  in 
Europe  and  America  ?  The  ablest  defenders  have 
also  come  from  thence ;  but  history  admonishes  the 
Church  that  concerning  even  the  seats  of  sacred 
learning  she  must  regard  the  divine  Master's  com- 
mand, "  Watch  and  Pray !  " 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  85 


The  Great  Awakening  op  1800 

Two  great  waves  of  influence  that  moved  across 
the  border  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  deeply 
impressed,  have  indeed  almost  shaped,  the  character 
of  our  Church.    One  was  the  revival  of  religion  some- 
times called  "The  Great  Awakening  of  Eighteen 
Hundred."    A  formalism   as  spiritually  barren  as 
that  of  the  Pharisees  stood  for  religion.     Specula- 
tions as  sapless,  soulless  and  useless  as  those  which 
occupied   the  intellects  of  the  Jewish  priests  and 
rabbins  of  the  first  half-century  of  Christ,  were  the 
favorite   themes   of  ministers   and   teachers.     Un- 
belief, indifference,  skepticism  ate  like  gangrene  at 
the  hearts  of  high  and  low.     Montesquieu  said  of 
this  period  :  "  There  is  no  religion  in  England.     If 
the  subject  is  mentioned  in  society,  it  excites  noth- 
ing   but  laughter."     Bishop   Butler  said:    "It   is 
taken  for  granted  by  many  persons  that  Christianity 
is  not  so  much  as  a  subject  for  inquiry ;  but  that  it 
is  now  at  length  discovered  to  be  fictitious."     So 
general   was   the   reaction   from   old    beliefs  that 
Yoltaire  is  said  to  have  boasted  that  before  the 
nineteenth  century  dawned,  Christianity  would  be 
banished  from  the  world!     Parton,  in  his  life  of 
Aaron  Burr,  says  that  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century    it    was    a    common    expectation    among 


86  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

cultivated  infidels  that  Christianity  would  not  hold 
its  place  in  the  world  for  three  centuries  longer  1 

This  spiritual  condition  of  the  Church  was  re- 
flected, though  in  a  fainter  degree,  in  America. 
The  infidelity  whose  outbreak  shocked  the  world 
during  the  French  Revolution  of  1792,  had  long 
been  gradually  leavening  the  nation,  nobility  and 
clergy,  professional,  business  and  laboring  classes 
alike.  It  infected  the  officers  of  the  Colonial  army 
by  contact  with  their  companions  in  arms  of  the 
army  and  the  navy  of  France,  who  were  fighting 
side  by  side  with  them  the  battles  of  independence. 
The  godly  mourned  the  desolation  of  Zion. 
"  Ichabod,  thy  glory  is  departed "  seemed  to  be 
written  upon  the  portals  of  the  sanctuaries. 

But  it  happened  as  of  old  in  Israel,  "  the  people 
who  sat  in  darkness  saw  a  great  light."  Upon  the 
spiritual  darkness  of  Israel  in  the  first  century, 
arose  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  and  with  Him 
those  lesser  lights,  the  apostles  and  disciples  of 
Jesus,  and  following  them  the  early  Christian 
fathers.  The  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century 
saved  the  faith  in  Europe.  It  gave  men  a  form  of 
Christianity  adapted  to  the  new  conditions  of  so- 
ciety and  the  renaissance  of  human  thought  and 
culture.  It  revived  the  Roman  Church  and  rescued 
it  from  spiritual  decadence.  If  the  Reformation  was 
the  birth  of  Protestantism,  it  was  the  rebirth  of 
Roman  Catholicism.  Thus  on  either  hand  Chris- 
tianity was  purified  and  uplifted. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  87 

So,  in  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
there  came  upon  the  whole  Christian  world  a  spirit 
of  revived  evangelism.  The  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  spiritual  saving  of  men,  which  had  been 
almost  atrophied,  or  buried  beneath  the  exotic  ef- 
florescence of  formalism,  was  quickened  in  many 
breasts.  On  every  hand  was  manifest  a  keen  inter- 
est in  human  souls,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  and 
a  burning  zeal  to  save  them.  The  influence  of  this 
great  movement  is  inestimable.  It  is  scarcely  too 
much  to  say  that  it  saved  Protestant  Christianity 
from  decadence.  Perhaps,  more  properly  one 
should  say,  it  was  the  evidence  that  Christianity 
possesses  a  vitality  which  is  indestructible,  and 
which  expresses  itself  in  movements  for  the  rescue 
of  humanity  and  the  revival  of  religion. 

This  mighty  spiritual  tide  swept  across  the  border 
of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries,  over- 
spreading England  especially,  and  in  a  measure  the 
whole  of  Protestant  Europe.  It  swelled  high  on 
our  American  shores.  The  Presbyterian  General 
Assembly  was  organized  in  1789  under  the  day- 
spring  of  this  new  reformation,  into  warm  zeal  and 
holier  faith,  and  so,  under  happy  auspices  began 
its  great  career  of  evangelism.  The  preachers 
kindled  the  flame  of  piety  as  they  went  from 
town  to  town,  from  hamlet  to  hamlet,  from  house 
to  house. 

Along  the  Southern  Atlantic  border  the  reviving 
energy  spread  from  the  old  Hanover  Presbytery  of 


88  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Virginia  to  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia.  The  zeal  and 
fervid  eloquence  that  have  characterized  the  preach- 
ers and  orators  of  the  South,  were  consecrated  to 
the  establishment  of  religion  along  the  rivers  and 
shores,  on  the  plantations,  and  in  the  great  pine 
forests,  of  that  section. 

In  the  Eastern  and  New  England  States  the 
spirit  of  revival  worked  mightily.  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts  felt  the  power.  It  penetrated  the 
then  wilderness  of  Yermont  and  New  Hampshire. 
Eastern  New  York  was  profoundly  moved  thereby. 
Commencing  with  a  wonderful  display  of  divine 
grace  at  Palmyra,  it  extended  to  Bristol,  Bloomfield, 
Canandaigua,  Richmond,  and  Lima.  The  counties  of 
Delaware  and  Otsego  were  affected.  On  the  north, 
Oneida  was  shaken.  It  was  a  common  saying  then, 
"  There  is  no  religion  West  of  the  Genesee  River." 
But  the  force  of  the  proverb  was  dissolved  before 
the  advancing  Spirit  of  grace.  It  rolled  a  strong 
current  into  Western  New  York,  and  to  the  revival 
of  that  period  is  due,  in  a  large  degree,  the  devout 
and  elevated  character  of  the  people  of  that  popu- 
lous section,  and  the  prosperity  and  culture  which 
invariably  spring  therefrom. 

"  From  1800  to  1825,"  said  Dr.  Gardiner  Spring, 
of  the  Brick  Church,  New  York  city,  who  himself 
was  a  child  of  the  revival,  "there  was  an  uninter- 
rupted series  of  celestial  visitations.  During  the 
whole  of  these  twenty-five  years,  there  was  not  a 
month  in  which  we  could  not  point  to  some  village, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  89 

some  city,  some  seminary  of  learning,  and  say, 
1  Behold,  what  God  hath  wrought ! ' " 

McMillan,  McGready,  Marquis,  Patterson,  Ma- 
curdy,  and  other  pioneer  preachers  and  educators  on 
our  frontiers,  became  the  divine  instruments  of  the 
Western  Kevival  of  1800.  Then  were  to  be  seen  in 
the  vast  wilderness  reaches  of  our  new  land  strange 
and  startling  scenes.  "Western  Pennsylvania  and 
Kentucky  especially  were  moved  to  the  foundations 
of  society.  There  the  revival  seized  upon  and 
utilized  an  institution  which  had  sprung  out  of  the 
necessities  of  the  pioneers.  These  men,  mostly  de- 
scendants of  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish  Presby- 
terians, sought  to  maintain  their  old-fashioned  an- 
nual communions  with  its  "  Four-Days'  Meetings," 
including  a  Thursday  fast  and  post-communion 
service  on  Monday.  There  was  no  sanctuary  that 
could  hold  the  people  save  "  God's  first  temples," 
the  mighty  forests  around  them.  There,  then,  they 
pitched  their  tents,  and  reared  booths  of  wattled 
branches  and  leaves,  and  placing  them  and  their 
covered  wagons  around  three  sides  of  a  hollow 
square,  which  contained  rude  seats  of  logs  and  slabs, 
facing  a  pulpit  and  platform  of  the  same  material, 
they  worshiped  God  as  nearly  as  might  be  after 
the  manner  of  their  fathers. 

This  primitive  institution  the  pioneer  revivalists 
utilized.  Under  a  process  of  gradual  evolution, 
chiefly  in  the  hands  of  our  brethren  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  it  has  grown  into  the  Chau- 


90  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

tuaquas,  the  Ocean  Groves,  the  Winonas,  and  similar 
vast  summer  encampments  which  to-day  attract 
scores  of  thousands  of  worshipers.  But  it  is  of 
Presbyterian  origin.  Vast  camp  meetings  were 
organized  by  the  pioneer  preachers.  In  the  prime- 
val forest  arose  the  mighty  sound  of  psalms  sung 
by  great  congregations,  who  were  swayed  by  the 
fervent  reasonings  and  appeals  of  the  preachers  as 
were  the  branches  of  the  trees  above  them  by  the 
passing  breeze.  In  the  silence  of  the  deeper  woods, 
the  cry  of  prayer  and  of  penitence  was  heard,  and 
the  rejoicing  shout  of  new  believers.  There  were 
some  disorders  as  one  might  expect.  There  were 
physical  prostrations  ;  outbursts  of  unregulated  en- 
thusiasm ;  unwholesome  reactions ;  harmful  ex- 
crescences. But,  on  the  whole,  the  work  of  grace 
may  be  said  to  have  saved  the  new  West  from  the 
gross  materialism,  infidelity,  and  semi-barbarism, 
that  threatened  it,  and  consecrated  it  unto  Christ 
and  his  Church.  Thus,  the  infant  brow  of  the 
mighty  "West  and  Southwest  was  baptized  with  the 
dew  of  heaven,  the  Holy  Ghost  shed  from  on  high. 
The  tide  of  religious  feeling  spread  farther  and 
wider,  and  rose  higher  and  higher,  and  from  that 
day  to  the  present  has  been  continually  rising  until 
the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century  shows  the 
Church  panoplied  with  a  power  of  influence,  of 
wealth,  and  above  all  of  spiritual  purpose  and  devo- 
tion which,  in  the  whole  history  of  the  nineteen 
centuries  of  Christianity  has  never  been  excelled. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  91 

Our  General  Assembly  of  1803  appointed  a  spe- 
cial committee  on  the  state  of  religion,  consisting 
of  Samuel  Miller,  Archibald  Alexander  and  James 
West,  peerless  names  in  our  Presbyterian  history. 
Their  report  is  well  worth  perusal  by  the  men  of 
the  twentieth  century,  and  it  confirms  the  state- 
ment here  made  of  the  inestimable  value  of  the 
revival  of  1800  in  shaping  the  social,  moral  and  re- 
ligious character  of  the  American  people.  To  one 
point  this  committee  called  particular  attention. 
Most  of  the  accounts  of  revival  communicated  to 
them  stated  that  the  institution  of  praying  societies, 
or  seasons  of  special  prayer  to  God  for  the  out- 
pouring of  the  Spirit,  generally  preceded  the  re- 
markable displays  of  divine  grace  with  which  the 
land  had  been  favored.  Could  this  venerable  As- 
sembly and  the  Church  which  it  represents,  better 
begin  the  new  century  than  by  calling  upon  all 
Christian  people  throughout  its  vast  extent  to 
organize  "New  Century  Praying  Bands"  and 
"  Twentieth  Century  Societies  for  Prayer  "  ?  Were 
we  thus  to  lay  hold  of  the  divine  Hand  by  that 
human  arm  divinely  appointed  to  open  its  stores  of 
mercy,  surely  we  would  have  reason  to  hope  that 
now,  as  a  century  ago,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  would 
descend  upon  the  people,  and  multitudes  be  born  unto 
God.  Here,  from  our  high  vantage  ground,  on  this 
the  great  day  of  our  new  century  feast,  let  us  pray 
and  wait  with  outstretched  hands  to  God,  and  listen 
for  "  the  sound  of  a  going  in  the  tops  of  the  trees  " ! 


92  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

VI 

Development  Through  the  Spirit  of 
Organization 

A  second  formative  influence  that  shaped  the 
character  of  our  Church  and  of  American  Christen- 
dom generally,  was  the  spirit  of  organization.  Men 
were  moved  to  band  together  for  Christian  work. 
The  element  of  personal  initiative  in  Church  prog- 
ress was  stronger  with  the  pioneers  than  with  us, 
in  whom  that  element  is  largely  eliminated.  Boards 
and  societies  are  now  depended  upon  to  begin  and 
complete  the  great  missionary  undertakings  of  the 
Church.  But  the  fathers  early  saw  the  need  of 
organization.  This  movement  had  begun  in  Europe 
in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  was  organized  in  1792 ; 
the  London  Missionary  Society  in  1794;  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  in  1799;  the  Beligious  and 
Tract  Society  in  1799 ;  and  the  Episcopal  Church 
Missionary  Society  in  1800  ;  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  in  1804.  These  were  the  types  of 
many  organizations  which  sprung  into  being 
throughout  Great  Britain  and  the  Continent. 

In  the  American  colonies  Christians  largely  de- 
pended upon  British  organizations.  It  is  significant 
that  the  society  in  Scotland  for  Propagating  Chris- 
tian Knowledge,  composed  of  Presbyterians  in 
Edinburgh,  was  among  the  first  to  undertake  mis- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  93 

sionary  work  in  America.  In  1730,  Governor 
Belcher  and  others  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony  were  made  a  "  Board  of  Correspondents," 
for  carrying  on  work  among  the  Indians.  In  1732 
the  first  missionaries  l  were  sent  out  to  the  Indians 
on  the  George  and  Connecticut  rivers.  In  1737  this 
work  was  abandoned. 

In  1740  a  similar  Board  was  formed  in  New 
York ;  and  within  the  same  decade,  David  Brainerd 
was  sent  out  under  the  auspices  of  the  same  society 
to  undertake  his  historic  and  heroic  work  in  which 
he  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  John  Brainerd. 
The  conversion  of  the  Indians  was  then  regarded  as 
foreign  missionary  work,  as  indeed  it  was  until  a 
comparatively  recent  date.  But  the  Scottish  So- 
ciety undertook  home  missions  as  well,  sending  out 
the  Kev.  Mr.  John  McLeod  to  a  colony  of  High- 
landers in  the  Carolinas  in  1735.2 

The  ^Revolution  severed  the  bond  between  the 
colonies  and  the  mother  country,  and  American 
Christians  at  once  began  to  organize  for  evangelis- 
tic work.  The  New  York  Missionary  Society  was 
formed  in  1796,  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  the 
eloquent  Dr.  John  M.  Mason  who,  in  his  address  of 
1803,   indulged    the    dream   that   the   "converted 

1  Mr.  Joseph  Secomb,  Mr.  Ebenezer  Hinsdale  and  Mr.  Stephen 
Parker. 

2  The  mission  was  abandoned  in  1740  on  account  of  the  colony 
being  nearly  extinguished  in  the  expedition  against  the  Spaniards 
at  St.  Augustine. 


94  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Indians  of  America  might  carry  westward  into 
Asia  the  light  of  life  and  immortality."  Who  shall 
say  that  this  dream  is  an  empty  figment  ?  The 
native  Indians  to-day  are  preaching  the  gospel  to 
their  own  people  ;  and  it  is  but  a  step  from  the  far 
West  and  from  Alaska  to  the  shores  of  Asia !  Why 
should  not  our  brethren  of  the  aboriginal  race  aid 
in  evangelizing  Japan  and  China,  from  which  na- 
tions it  is  not  impossible  that  they  may  have 
sprung  ? 

In  1802  the  Synod  of  Pittsburg  was  organized, 
and  at  once  formed  itself  into  the  "  Western  Mis- 
sionary Society,"  of  which  the  Hon.  Walter 
Lowrie  became  the  secretary.  A  "  Board  of  Trust " 
was  formed  as  a  sort  of  commission  to  conduct  the 
affairs  of  the  society,  and  to  select  and  send  forth 
missionaries.  In  1810  (June  29)  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  was 
formed,  and  in  1818  the  American  Home  Missionary 
Society.  To  both  of  these  organizations  Presby- 
terians largely  contributed,  and  no  just  history  of 
the  progress  of  the  Church  can  omit  the  vast  in- 
fluence for  good  exercised  upon  Presbyterian  his- 
tory, in  building  up  our  frontiers  and  planting  mis- 
sions in  foreign  parts,  by  these  two  noble  organiza- 
tions now  controlled  by  our  brethren  of  the  Con- 
gregational Church. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  95 

VII 
Forms  of  Worship. — The  Praise  Service 

A  great  change  has  befallen  our  forms  of  wor- 
ship. One  may  use  the  word  "  forms " ;  for  al- 
though our  branch  of  the  widely-spread  Presby- 
terian and  Keformed  fold  has  no  written  prayers, 
the  methods  of  Calvin  and  Knox  not  having  de- 
scended to  us,  yet  our  fathers  had  their  unwritten 
forms.  As  a  rule  they  adhered  to  them  more 
rigidly  than  the  clergy  of  to-day.  Those  who  can 
remember  the  old-time  pastors,  can  recall  their  fixed 
order  of  worship,  and  the  method  and  matter  of 
their  public  petitions.  Some  of  their  phrases  still 
ring  in  our  ears;  quaint,  devout,  breathing  the 
spirit  of  piety,  and  clothed  in  the  words  of  Holy 
Scripture.  Some  of  these  have  been  made  obsolete 
by  the  very  progress  of  events,  as  the  well-worn 
petition  that  "  God  would  open  the  gates  of  the 
Gentiles  to  the  gospel " ;  and  that  "  God  would 
break  down  the  Chinese  wall  for  the  entrance  of 
Christianity." 

Organs  and  melodeons,  as  aids  to  praise,  were  to 
most  of  our  pioneer  worshipers  an  impious  "  kist 
o'  whustles."  Even  the  tuning  fork  was  looked 
upon  with  suspicion.  It  would  be  hard  for  a 
modern  congregation  to  conceive  the  depth  of  in- 
dignation and  contempt  expressed  in  the  sarcastic 
announcement  credited  to  one  of  the  old-fashioned 


96  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

ministers  who  was  preaching,  by  way  of  exchange, 
in  a  church  where  a  musical  instrument  was  used  : 
"  Let  us  fiddle  and  sing  to  the  praise  of  the  Lord  in 
the  use  of  the  One  Hundredth  Psalm !  "  The  in- 
novation had  a  long  and  hard  contest  for  admission 
which,  to  most  of  this  assembly,  is  now  merely  a 
curious  episode  of  history. 

There  is  little  to  restrain  any  pastor  from  in- 
troducing whatever  form  of  musical  service  pleases 
him.  Choirs,  even  voluntary  choirs,  were  rare  a 
hundred  years  ago.  The  precentor  stood  at  the 
front  or  side  of  the  pulpit,  and  raised  the  tune, 
frequently  "lining  out"  the  psalms,  a  custom 
which  had  not  disappeared  fifty  or  even  forty  years 
ago ;  although  your  speaker  has  seen  within  the 
last  twenty  years  a  precentor  in  a  dress  coat,  with 
baton  in  hand,  standing  on  the  pulpit  platform  of 
a  metropolitan  church,  leading  the  congregational 
praise.  Anthems,  solos,  responsive  readings,  would 
have  raised  a  riot  in  the  ordinary  Presbyterian 
congregation  of  a  century  ago ;  and  the  minister 
who  would  have  dared  to  introduce  them  would 
have  been  served  with  almost  as  emphatic  a  protest 
as  that  of  Jenny  Geddes,  whose  famous  stool  ad- 
monished Dean  Hannay,  in  St.  Giles  of  Edinburgh 
in  1637, that  he  must  not  try  to  force  "the  relics  of 
popery  "  upon  a  Presbyterian  folk. 

How  changed  is  all  this !  The  precentor  has  gone, 
or  is  only  an  occasional  archaic  survival.  Organs, 
choirs,  anthems,  solos,  responsive  readings,  are  al- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  97 

most  universal  in  church  or  in  Sunday  school.  The 
ancient  "  Twelve  Common  Tunes  "  have  given  place 
to  hundreds  of  melodies,  ranging  from  the  highest 
product  of  the  masters  to  the  lightest  jiggling  and 
trivial  adaptations  of  the  Sunday-school  or  revival- 
ists' tune  book. 

And  the  Psalms — the  dear  old  Psalms  of  David 
in  the  "  varsion "  of  Francis  Rous !  "Where  are 
they  ?  Time  was,  when  one  Psalm  Book  served  for 
all  churches  and  all  sections.  The  emigrant  from 
Scotland  or  from  Ulster  found  his  Rous  in  use  in 
the  American  Colonies  and  States.  The  pioneer 
who  pushed  his  slow  way  from  the  eastern  sea- 
board to  the  frontiers  of  Pennsylvania  or  Kentucky, 
carried  his  Rous's  version  with  him,  and  found  it 
used  in  the  log-cabin  churches  among  the  clearings 
of  the  "West.  Now,  to  quote  the  indignant  note  of  a 
Christian  woman  returned  from  a  western  journey  : 
"  A  tourist  would  have  to  carry  a  trunkf ul  of  dif- 
ferent hymn  books  in  order  to  join  in  the  worship  of 
Presbyterian  churches.  I  have  been  traveling  all 
summer,  and  always  went  to  my  own  church,  and 
never  found  the  same  hymn  book  in  any  two 
churches  !  "  Doubtless,  we  have  lost  something  in 
this  loss  of  unity.  At  least,  our  fathers  were  not 
unwise  in  trying  to  secure  unity  of  worship  in  the 
matter  of  psalmody.  Is  not  that  one  thing  which 
the  twentieth  century  might  wTell  return  to, — one 
book  of  praise  for  the  entire  Church  ?  Is  there  any 
reason  why  this  part  of  worship  should  not  be  a 

7 


98  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

subject  for  presbyterial  authority  equally  with  the 
use  of  one  version  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ? 

The  change  in  the  character  of  our  hymns  has 
been  one  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  the 
century.  Until  the  Keunion  of  1870,  the  preference 
of  the  churches  was,  for  the  most  part,  divided  be- 
tween the  Psalms  in  Rous's  version,  and  Dr. 
Watts's  Imitations  of  the  Psalms,  together  with 
his  Hymns  and  Divine  Songs.  These  were  printed 
in  separate  parts,  and  the  arrangement  was  simple 
and  effective,  to  say  the  least.  It  is  notable  that 
the  Psalms  in  some  version  had  a  prominent  part. 
It  is  a  marvel  and  a  misfortune  that  our  Church  has 
consented  to  drop  most  of  these  noble  and  inspired 
vehicles  of  praise  from  its  hymnology.  One  might 
regret  it  on  the  ground  of  historic  sympathy.  If 
you  will  turn  to  an  English  prayer  book  of  the 
times  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  or  of  Edward  VI,  or  of 
the  Charles's,  you  will  find  that  the  only  hymns  of 
the  Church  then  used  were  the  Psalms  in  the  ver- 
sion of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins.  At  a  later  period, 
from  the  days  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  on,  the 
version  of  Sir  Francis  Rous,  as  amended  by  the 
Scotch  Assembly  of  1650,  grew  into  favor  until, 
among  the  Puritan  and  Presbyterian  churches  of 
England,  Scotland,  Ulster,  and  America,  it  held  the 
sole  place. 

To  be  sure,  the  New  Testament  Church  should 
not  be  bound  to  Old  Testament  psalmody.  It 
seems  to  us  unreasonable  and  unscriptural  that  ut- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  99 

terances  which  voice  the  fulfillment  of  the  Messianic 
Psalms,  and  the  faith  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles, 
and  the  experience  of  the  Christian  Church  as 
moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  should  be  refused  a 
place  in  public  worship.  Nevertheless  on  the 
ground  both  of  historic  sympathy  and  of  eminent 
fitness,  the  Psalms,  in  some  metrical  version  or  as 
chants,  should  have  a  permanent  place  in  our  wor- 
ship. They  are  without  a  rival  as  suitable  vehicles 
for  expressing  human  gratitude  to  God  for  all  his 
benefits.  There  are  no  thanksgiving  hymns  of 
praise  like  those  we  may  select  from  the  Hebrew 
Psalter. 

Let  us  hope  that,  in  that  turning  to  the  worthy 
history  of  the  past  which  crops  up  in  this  dawn  of 
the  twentieth  century,  there  will  be  a  revival  of 
the  psalmody  which  has  been  consecrated  through 
all  the  centuries  past  to  the  praise  and  service  of 
Almighty  God.  Those  noble  utterances  were 
voiced  by  the  ancient  people  of  God  as  they  moved 
toward  Jerusalem  to  their  religious  festivals,  and 
"  the  Pilgrim  Psalms "  are  among  the  sweetest  of 
the  Psalter.  On  the  great  days  of  worship  the 
temples  and  the  hillsides  surrounding  rang  with  the 
Psalms  sung  to  Hebrew  melodies  by  the  people,  and 
by  the  mighty  choir  of  the  Levites  organized  for 
the  temple  service.  These  are  the  hymns  that  Jesus 
sang  as  a  boy,  sang  as  a  man,  and  from  them  his 
dying  utterances  were  chosen.  These  are  the 
hymns   that   voiced  the  worship  of  the  Apostolic 


100  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Church.  These  are  the  hymns  that  our  Puritan  and 
Presbyterian  fathers  sang  in  all  their  history  pre- 
ceding the  last  century.  They  are  just  as  fitting  to- 
day to  utter  our  sacred  thanksgiving  as  at  any 
period  of  God's  Church,  whether  under  the  old  or 
the  new  dispensation.  Our  new  Hymnal  is  a  book 
worthy  of  the  favored  place  it  has  already  taken  in 
our  Church.  But  it  lacks  one  thing  that  a  perfect 
book  of  praise  should  have :  a  selection  of  fifty  or 
sixty  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  preferably  in  the 
version  of  Rous,  or  as  near  to  the  original  as  modern 
ideas  of  propriety  and  taste  will  permit. 

VIII 

The  Sacraments. — Ministerial  Manners 

In  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments,  baptism 
has  suffered  little  change  at  the  hands  of  time,  ex- 
cept perhaps  that  the  sense  of  its  value  has  some- 
what diminished.  There  was  long  a  feeling,— shall 
we  call  it  a  superstition  ?— that  caused  the  pioneer 
parent  to  mount  and  ride  away  over  forest  trail  and 
prairie  to  fetch  the  minister  to  christen  a  dying 
child.  It  is  rare  that  such  an  experience  befalls  the 
clergyman  of  to-day.  The  Sunday  following  the 
Communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper,— according  to  the 
custom,  was  wont  to  see  a  crowd  of  parents  stand- 
ing before  the  pulpit  with  the  children  who  had 
been  born  since  the  last  observance,  and  the  un- 
baptized  offspring  of  those  who  had  just  been  ad- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  101 

mitted  to  the  Church.  It  was  a  solemn  and  im- 
pressive spectacle,  as  the  pastor  moved  along  the 
throng,  accompanied  by  the  senior  elder  who  car- 
ried the  font,  sprinkling  the  water  of  baptism  upon 
the  brows  of  the  little  ones  of  God's  covenant. 
Sometimes,  a  whole  family,  four  or  five  or  six  chil- 
dren would  receive  at  one  time  the  sacrament  of 
baptism.  One  does  not  note  such  scenes  to-day. 
The  preciousness  to  the  parent  and  the  value  to  the 
child,  of  the  Covenant  which  gives  the  Christian's  off- 
spring a  birthright  in  the  Church,  and  a  title  to  its 
promises  and  ordinances,  are  well  appreciated  by 
many.  Yet  there  is  hardly  that  almost  universal 
appropriation  thereof  which  was  the  usage  of  early 
times.  We  would  surely  expect  it  to  be  otherwise 
in  view  of  the  marvelous  turning  of  the  hearts  of 
the  fathers  to  the  children,  which  is  expressed  in 
the  spread  and  growth  of  the  Sunday-school  move- 
ment. 

In  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  the 
change  has  been  more  radical.  The  ante-commun- 
ion fast,  the  four-days'  meeting,  the  action  ser- 
mon, the  post-communion  service,  have  well-nigh 
ceased.  The  sacramental  token,  a  bit  of  metal 
stamped  with  the  initial  letter  of  the  minister  or  of 
the  church,  or  simply  with  the  capital  "  M  "  which 
betokened  membership,  and  which  gave  the  com- 
municant the  right  to  come  to  the  Supper,  has  been 
so  completely  eschewed  that  a  collection  of  tokens 
is  a  curiosity  to  modern  American  Presbyterians. 


102  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

The  "  communion  card  "  or  "  token  card  "  is  the  sole 
survival  of  this  interesting  custom.  The  narrow 
tables,  spread  with  their  snowy  linen  cloths,  around 
which  communicants  sat  in  successive  "  tables  "  until 
all  were  served,  are  no  more  seen.  The  long  "  rolls  " 
of  unleavened  bread,  with  flecks  of  brown  upon  the 
white,  and  laid  crosswise  upon  the  napkin-covered 
plate,  are  gone.  The  very  cup  itself — the  Loving 
Cup  of  the  Master, — his  symbol  of  the  Christian 
Brotherhood  of  Blood,  is  fast-disappearing  before 
the  tiny  individual  cuplets  of  glass ;  and  the  stately 
tankard  that  the  elder  slowly  carried  through  the 
aisle  from  which  to  replenish  the  sacred  vessels,  has 
been  displaced  by  the  patent  "  filler."  So  much  for 
the  discovery  of  the  pernicious  and  all-pervading 
microbe !  Surely  here  has  been  evolution  per 
saltum,  and  as  radical  as  it  is  rapid.  It  would  seem 
that  in  this  respect,  at  least,  it  would  be  impossible 
for  change  to  go  farther. 

The  chief  function  of  the  pastor,  according  to 
the  New  Testament,  is  teaching.  To  preach  the 
gospel,  discipling  the  nations,  teaching  them  what- 
soever things  the  Lord  commanded,  is  the  divine 
mission  to  which  Christ's  ministers  are  committed. 
Our  fathers  of  one  hundred  years  ago  magnified 
their  office  in  this  regard.  They  labored  faithfully 
in  word  and  doctrine ;  they  imitated  the  zeal  of  the 
apostles  and  primitive  disciples  in  bearing  the  glad 
tidings  to  the  scattered  remnant  of  Israel  and  to  the 
unbelieving.     Their   spirit  abides  with   their   chil- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  103 

dren.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  the  ministers  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  take  heed  to  the  command 
of  the  aged  Paul  to  the  young  Timothy,  "  Preach 
the  word ! " 

But  if  the  spirit  survives,  the  method  has 
changed.  As  the  century  lengthened,  the  sermon 
shortened.  Dr.  John  McMillan,  the  pioneer  of 
Western  Pennsylvania,  when  counseling  short  ser- 
mons to  his  students,  remarked,  with  a  notable  out- 
burst of  progressiveness :  "  I  have  rarely  known  a 
conversion  to  be  made  beyond  the  hour!"  That 
expresses  the  minimum  in  his  day.  The  hourglass 
upon  the  pulpit,  which  the  preacher  turned  as  he 
announced  his  text,  gave  the  congregation  the  op- 
portunity to  see  that  he  did  not  give  them  scant 
measure.  The  people  were  rather  pleased  than 
otherwise,  when  he  turned  the  glass,  and  started 
the  sands  a-running  upon  the  second  hour. 

The  Genevan  gown  and  the  bands  were  worn  by 
our  fathers  as  the  universally  accepted  badge  of  the 
Presbyterian  clergyman.  The  innovation  of  preach- 
ing in  ordinary  clothes,  then  in  "  blacks,"  then  in 
black  frock  coat,  gradually  made  headway,  largely 
at  first  through  the  poverty  of  ministers  and  people 
and  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  preaching  robes. 
The  "bands"  developed  into  the  white  necktie. 
The  clerical  vest  and  coat  came  into  vogue,  notably 
after  the  Civil  "War  chaplains  came  home.  Some  of 
the  divines  of  the  middle  of  the  century  always  ap- 
peared in  the  pulpit  in  a  gentleman's  full  dress  suit 


104  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

(swallow-tail  coat),  and  down  to  our  day  such  lead- 
ers as  Drs.  Adams,  Musgrave,  Beadle  and  Albert 
Barnes  were  rarely  seen,  and  never  heard,  in  any 
other  raiment.  To  them  it  seemed  but  simple  good 
manners  that  they  should  appear  before  the  Lord 
and  the  people,  in  the  high  function  of  preaching, 
at  least  as  well  dressed  as  when  going  to  an  evening 
company.  Some  of  the  fathers  carried  this  sense 
of  fitness  to  the  length  of  wearing  black  kid  gloves 
in  the  pulpit. 

To-day  there  is  a  notable  reaction,  and  in  opposite 
directions.  Some  preachers  eschew  all  clerical  gar- 
ments, and  affect  a  style  that  in  no  wise  distin- 
guishes them  from  other  men.  They  are  simply  as 
"a  man  among  men."  This  is  the  motto  of  their 
method,  which  certainly  has  beneath  it  at  least  the 
worthy  purpose  to  cultivate  genuine  personal  manli- 
ness. Other  preachers  are  returning  to  the  custom 
of  the  Scotch,  English  and  Continental  Presby- 
terians, as  at  first  practiced  by  our  American 
fathers,  and  are  assuming  the  Genevan  gown  for 
public  duty. 

Whether  in  ordinary  life  a  preacher  shall  wear  a 
clerical  coat,  or  dress  as  other  men,  is  a  matter  of 
taste.  But  surely  if  there  were  no  considerations 
of  propriety,  and  of  reverence,  and  of  regard  for 
due  order  and  uniformity,  a  sense  of  historic  fitness 
would  plead  for  the  readoption  of  the  preaching 
gown.  It  is  hard  for  older  men  to  take  up  new 
ways  ;  but  every  young  minister  may  well  be  coun- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  105 

seled  to  return  to  the  good  old  way  of  pulpit  dress. 
If  a  special  pulpit  vestment  is  proper,  as  the  Church 
undoubtedly  believes,  it  would  seem  that  the  his- 
toric and  ecclesiastical  robe  of  the  scholar  and 
divine,  should  be  preferred  to  the  prevailing  vest- 
ment of  black  frock  coat,  clerical  vest  and  white 
necktie. 

Reviewing  these  changes  in  the  methods  of  church 
worship,  we  cannot  forbear  some  natural  feelings  of 
regret  as  we  say  good-by  to  the  old  ways,  endeared 
to  many  of  us  by  sweet  and  sacred  associations. 
We  are  impressed  by  their  simplicity ;  their  adher- 
ence to  the  spirit  and  forms  of  the  earlier  founders 
and  fathers  of  our  venerable  communion,  and  by 
their  perfect  adaptation  to  the  conditions  and  char- 
acters of  the  pioneers.  But  we  are  to  remember, 
even  amidst  our  tears,  that  the  Church  is  also  under 
a  law  of  development,  ordered  and  animated  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  the  guiding  force  of  all  ecclesiastical 
history.  For  us  and  for  our  environment  the  pres- 
ent conditions  may  be  the  most  helpful. 

Yet'  the  past  has  much  to  teach  us  ;  and  its  temper 
and  usages  should  at  least  modify  our  present  views, 
and  give  a  savor  of  historic  conservatism  to  the 
spirit  of  restlessness  and  change  which,  under  the 
name  of  progress,  may  be  hurrying  us  into  modes 
and  measures  of  doubtful  value.  And  who  knows  ? 
It  has  often  occurred  and  may  again  come  to  pass, 
that  the  wheel  shall  "  come  full  circle  round,"  and 
the  fashion  of  our  fathers  may  become  the  fashion 


106  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

of  our  children,  ere  the  twentieth  century  has  been 
merged  with  the  mighty  past.  Then,  the  com- 
memorative sacrament  which  shall  be  celebrated  in 
this  historic  city  to  hail  the  dawn  of  the  twenty- 
first  century,  will  be  observed  after  the  manner  of 
our  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish  pioneers,  and  the 
Assembly  Hall  of  that  era  shall  ring  with  the  dear 
old  Psalms  in  meter ;  the  Moderator,  clerks  and 
ministerial  commissioners  will  appear  in  all  public 
functions  in  the  Genevan  gown,  and  the  military 
moustache  will  have  ceased  from  the  clerical  lip  ! 

IX 
The  Growth  and  Development  of  Sunday 

SCHOOLS 

The  religious  training  of  the  young  is  no  new 
work.  It  is  as  old  as  the  first  parents  ;  as  the  first 
priest ;  as  the  first  Church.  The  instincts  of  hu- 
manity assert  the  need  of  molding  young  lives  into 
usefulness.  God  provided  for  it  in  the  religious  laws 
of  the  Jewish  Commonwealth.  Children  were  em- 
braced in  all  Israel's  national  covenants.  Children 
were  to  be  taught  the  fundamental  truths  of  reli- 
gion as  soon  as  they  had  reached  years  to  compre- 
hend them.  The  primitive  Church  understood  this 
duty,  and  its  catechumens  were  an  especial  class  in- 
structed with  patience  and  fidelity  in  the  mysteries 
of  the  new  faith.  The  divines  and  parliamentary 
assessors,  peers  and  commons,  of  the  Westminster 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  107 

Assembly  a  quarter-millennium  ago  clearly  saw  the 
importance  of  this  duty.  Their  debates  show  how 
well  they  understood  that  the  only  hope  of  main- 
taining the  Protestant  religion  or  any  true  faith  in 
Great  Britain,  lay  in  educating  the  young  genera- 
tion. Their  Shorter  Catechism  was  the  worthy 
product  of  this  conviction.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  this  effort  to  provide  ministers,  teachers, 
and  parents,  with  the  means  of  instructing  young 
people  in  the  principles  and  duties  of  religion,  con- 
tributed as  much  as  any  other  one  cause  to  secure 
the  liberties  of  Scotland  and  England,  and  to  lay 
sure  foundations  for  the  civil  and  religious  freedom 
of  the  colonies  of  America. 

It  was  no  new  thing,  therefore,  only  a  new  method 
that  Eobert  Raikes  attempted.  But  that  attempt 
was  the  signal  for  a  revolution.  It  moved  through 
Great  Britain.  It  crossed  the  Atlantic.  It  found  a 
hospitable  reception  in  the  new  Republic  of  the 
West.  It  was  adopted,  adapted,  assimilated.  In 
this  movement  our  fathers  took  a  leading  part. 
And  now  the  Sunday-school  army  is  a  mighty  host. 
It  embraces  the  choicest  spirits  of  the  Church  and 
of  the  nation.  Justices  of  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  are  enrolled  in  it.  President  McKin- 
ley  is  a  past-superintendent  of  a  Sunday  school. 
Senators,  Congressmen,  Governors,  officers  of  the 
army  and  navy,  countless  men  of  affairs  and  honor- 
able women  not  a  few — one  million  and  a  half 
(1,394,630),  are  the  leaders  of  the  host.     And  the 


108  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

youth  and  children  ?  They  are  as  the  stars  of 
heaven  for  multitude.  In  the  United  States  alone 
there  are  nearly  thirteen  millions  enlisted  in  the 
Sunday-school  ranks,  and  in  Europe  more  than  five 
millions  more. 

Of  this  mighty  host  our  own  communion  numbers 
1,085,205.  Let  us  aid  our  imagination  to  grasp  such 
a  host  by  supposing  our  7,000  Sunday  schools  to  be 
gathered  here  in  Philadelphia  to  march  across  the 
continent  in  commemoration  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury's advent.  They  start  out  two  by  two,  four 
paces  between  every  two  schools.  Twenty  miles  a 
day  will  be  march  enough  for  such  young  soldiers  to 
make,  and  on  the  first  night,  the  head  of  the  column 
will  halt  at  Paoli.  By  the  close  of  the  first  week, 
the  van  is  encamped  for  Sabbath  rest  a  day's  journey 
beyond  Harrisburg  and  the  Susquehanna  river.  At 
the  close  of  the  second  week,  the  column  has  climbed 
the  Alleghany  Mountains,  and  has  halted  at  Portage. 
On  Monday  it  begins  the  descent  of  the  mountain, 
presses  on  over  the  rolling  foothills,  by  the  rippling 
waters  of  the  Conemaugh.  By  Thursday  it  is  at 
Pittsburg,  whose  big-hearted  populace,  so  strongly 
leavened  with  the  bracing  truths  of  the  Shorter 
Catechism,  has  turned  out  to  cheer  our  twentieth 
century  pilgrims  on  their  way.  The  third  week  ends 
with  the  column  halted  at  New  Galilee,  on  the  bor- 
der of  Ohio.  Onward  now  it  moves  to  spend  the 
night  at  New  Lisbon,  in  Columbiana  County.  An- 
other day's  march  brings  the  column  to  Alliance ; 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  109 

and  then,  with  their  young  hearts  a-quiver  with 
patriotism,  they  enter  the  precincts  of  Canton. 
They  march  before  the  well-known  historic  house 
on  whose  porch  President  McKinley  stands  to  re- 
view them.  How  they  cheer,  and  wave  their  ban- 
ners of  blue,  and  sing  until  the  Buckeye  blossoms 
fairly  shake  amid  their  broad  leaves!  They  are 
425  miles  from  Philadelphia.  They  have  been 
nearly  four  weeks  upon  the  journey,  and  the  rear 
of  the  mighty  army  has  not  yet  started  from 
Philadelphia ! 

Could  we  take  some  high  vantage  point,  and  have 
our  eyes  gifted  with  such  vision  as  the  young 
prophet  of  Doth  an  received  from  Elisha's  touch, 
what  a  scene  would  unfold  before  us !  We  see  a 
line  of  children,  youths,  boys  and  girls,  in  their 
bright  apparel,  their  sweet  young  faces  enlivened 
with  the  light  of  Eternal  Hope,  their  superintend- 
ents, teachers,  officers  and  pastors  marching  at  their 
sides,  winding  through  the  valleys  and  over  the 
hills,  and  along  the  streams,  trailing  up  the  moun- 
tain sides,  spanning  the  whole  vast  length  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  reaching  sixty  miles  into  Ohio  ! 
These  are  the  crusading  children  of  the  twentieth 
century  as  we  see  them  in  their  fancied  journey. 
God  help  them  on  that  real  journey  which  they  are 
to  make  across  the  new  era  that  has  dawned  upon 
us,  and  upon  them !  Only  here  and  there  shall  one 
reach  the  border  of  the  twenty-first  century,  but 
let  us  hope  and  pray  and  labor  that  all  may  pass 


110  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

rejoicing  into  the  home  of  the  Eternal  Ages.  Upon 
that  vast  array  of  youthful  life,  beauty  and  vigor, 
depend  the  hopes  of  the  Church  and  the  world  for 
the  age  which  opens  before  us. 

To  most  of  us  here  present  the  grasp  upon  the 
future  is  but  limited ;  to  some  of  us  it  is  very  faint, 
and  to  all  of  us  it  is  uncertain.  To  the  young  peo- 
ple of  our  homes  and  the  members  of  our  Sabbath 
schools,  these  wards  of  the  Church,  belongs  the 
future  with  all  its  possibilities  of  good,  and  alas,  its 
possibilities  of  evil,  as  well.  We  may  have,  we  must 
have  a  brighter  hope  and  firmer  faith  in  the  success 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  as  we  face  this  century, 
than  would  have  been  possible  with  our  fathers  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  Then  Sunday  schools  were 
comparatively  unknown.  Their  wonderful  progress, 
their  mighty  movement  across  the  Continent  and 
through  the  century  had  just  begun.  No  phe- 
nomenon is  more  remarkable,  and  none  fuller  of  hope 
to  the  Church  than  this  growth,  in  and  around  the 
Church,  of  those  who  are  to  take  the  places  of  the 
fathers  and  leaders. 

X 

The  Revival  of  Lay  Activities. — Woman's 
Work 

The  origin  of  Sunday  schools  was  the  birth  of  a 
new  force  within  the  Christian  Church.  It  opened 
the  way  for  believing  men  and  women  to  take  part 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  111 

in  God's  work.  The  religious  doubts  and  unbelief 
and  indifference  which  had  encrusted  and  befogged 
the  Church  of  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  were  broken  and  dissipated  when  brought 
in  contact  with  this  element  of  activity.  The  best 
cure  for  doubt  is  doing.  The  Sunday  school  saved 
the  Christian  Church  from  the  sterility  of  Arianism 
and  the  anaconda  folds  of  infidelity,  by  setting  be- 
lievers to  work  as  Christ's  yoke-fellows. 

Men  worked  off  their  indifference ;  and  with  in- 
difference unbelief  faded  away.  Duty  displaced 
doubt.  Contact  with  humanity  in  holy  toil  showed 
humanity's  need  of  religious  faith.  The  effort  to 
save  the  erring  disclosed  the  need  of  divine  aid  in 
well-doing.  In  the  face  of  the  world's  opposition, 
men  cried  out  to  God  and  clung  to  him  with  new 
trust.  Under  the  burden  of  human  sin  and  woe, 
they  sought  alike  the  divine  compassion  and  the 
divine  help.  In  relieving  the  sorrows  of  helpless 
childhood,  men  learned  the  infinite  tenderness  of 
the  Christ,  and  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Pity  grew 
by  what  it  fed  upon.  Hope  uprose  from  the  future, 
which  always  belongs  to  the  young.  Above  all, 
love,  the  love  of  God  and  of  helpless  human  beings, 
seized  up  the  Church  into  its  infinite  bosom,  until 
she  learned,  as  never  before,  the  old  inspired  word 
uttered  through  the  mighty  soul  that  men  call  St. 
Paul :  "  Now  abideth  faith,  hope  and  love ;  .  .  . 
and  the  greatest  of  these  is  love." 

Woman,  by  nature  and  divine  election  first  in  the 


112  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

order  of  child-saving,  was  brought  into  the  Sunday- 
school  service.  Her  smothered  voice  was  heard 
again  in  the  churches.  Her  swathed  activities  were 
unloosed,  and  her  suppressed  nature  given  larger 
bounds.  She  was  emancipated  for  Christian  work. 
It  seemed  like  the  emergence  of  a  new  race.  It 
was  the  rebirth  of  womanhood  into  the  Church  of 
the  Son  of  Mary.  The  nineteenth  century  is  con- 
spicuous above  all  others,  except  perhaps  the  first, 
by  its  fidelity  to  nature  and  the  gospel  in  following 
the  divine  word  :  "  Neither  is  the  man  without  the 
woman  nor  the  woman  without  the  man  "  ;  "  There 
is  neither  male  nor  female,  but  all  are  one  in  Christ 
Jesus." 

See  what  Christian  women,  and  women  every- 
where are  doing  and  planning  to  do  !  In  business, 
in  religious  and  secular  education,  on  the  platform, 
in  literature,  in  professional  life,  in  charities  as  well 
as  in  society  and  the  home,  she  is  potent,  and  in 
some  of  these  fields  is  the  most  potent  influence. 
It  seems  incredible  that  one  hundred,  yes,  fifty, 
years  ago,  this  vast  force  was  almost  voiceless  and 
unused  in  the  Church  and  the  community.  Eun 
back  the  threads  of  history  along  the  century  to 
the  first  decade.  You  put  your  finger  on  the  chief 
origin  and  cause  of  this  great  revolution  and  refor- 
mation in  the  Sunday-school  movement  which 
brought  woman  into  the  field,  and  gave  her  a  suita- 
ble sphere  for  the  exercise  and  enlargement  of  her 
powers.     God  only  knows  what  this  movement  has 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  113 

wrought ;  or  where  it  will  end.  But  let  us  thank 
him  for  it.  or  for  anything  else  that  brings  the 
Church  back  to  the  spirit  and  essential  methods  of 
the  primitive  century. 

Home  missions,  foreign  missions,  all  departments 
of  our  Christian  service  for  humanity  have  felt  the 
up-lift  and  inspiration  of  this  new  element  in  the 
Church's  work.  For  example,  the  first  distinctive 
organization  of  women,  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society,  was  founded  in  1870.  Its  contribu- 
tions to  date  have  been  $3,595,458  !  And  there 
have  come  with  these  practical  and  pecuniary  ad- 
vantages other  and  perhaps  more  valuable  elements 
of  service.  The  womanly  characteristics  have  been 
transfused  into  the  Church's  veins,  and  woman  her- 
self has  been  developed  into  a  larger,  freer,  finer 
and  more  efficient  being.  The  revival  of  lay  activi- 
ties meant  more  to  woman  in  personal  development 
of  spiritual  power  and  influence  than  to  man. 

But  to  both  sexes  it  meant  far  more  than  this 
brief  glance  can  indicate.  They  grew  side  by  side, 
as  is  the  natural  and  divine  order,  into  the  ever- 
advancing  and  widening  activities  of  the  era.  To- 
gether they  wrought  upon  and  wrought  themselves 
into  the  mighty  structure  of  the  country's  progress 
in  religious,  philanthropic,  educational  and  social 
development.  But  it  must  be  said,  in  the  interests 
of  truth,  that  to  the  men  of  the  Church,  at  first 
obstructive,  then  reluctant,  then  grudgingly  con- 
senting, and  at  last  heartily  cooperating,  the  in- 

8 


114  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

spiring  influence  of  mother,  wife,  sister,  and  women- 
friends,  gave  a  fresh  impulse  in  service,  a  new  heart 
for  duty,  and  a  vigor,  kindliness,  tact  and  devout- 
ness  which  have  made  their  own  part  in  the  work 
of  God  and  his  Church  far  more  valuable  than 
otherwise  it  would  have  been. 

XI 

The  Geowth  of  World  Evangelization 

Another  speaker  is  to  tell  you  to-day  of  the 
triumphant  progress  of  the  foreign  missionary 
cause  across  the  closed  century.  But  we  may  at 
least  sweep  an  eye  over  the  field,  and  get  a  glimpse 
of  achievements  of  our  Church.  It  is  true  that  our 
foreign  missions,  as  we  now  use  the  term,  were 
born  within  the  nineteenth  century.  But  the  spirit 
of  missions  was  strong  in  the  hearts  of  our  fore- 
fathers. Struggling  as  they  were  with  the  poverty, 
perils  and  untoward  conditions  of  a  new  country, 
and  with  the  almost  overwhelming  burden  of  build- 
ing up  civilization  and  religion  in  the  wilderness, 
they  nevertheless  cherished  a  deep  concern  for  the 
heathen  around  them.  The  United  States  was 
then,  with  the  exception  of  a  strip  along  the  At- 
lantic seaboard,  one  vast  heathen  continent  occupied 
by  the  savage  Indians. 

The  early  records  of  Presbytery  and  Synod  show 
that  the  responsibility  for  converting  the  Indian 
tribes  weighed  heavily  upon  the  leaders  of  the  little 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  115 

Church  in  the  wilderness,  and  that  from  time  to 
time,  they  sought  their  evangelization.  Their 
efforts  seem  paltry  as  compared  with  our  world-wide 
projects  and  achievements.  But  it  ill  becomes  us  to 
despise  the  day  of  small  things.  Those  heroic 
pioneers  were  planting  the  germs  of  many  worthy 
endeavors  which  have  developed  into  matters  of 
continental  proportions.  The  handful  of  seed,  sown 
in  humble  faith  and  in  straitened  circumstances, 
is  waving  like  the  forests  of  Lebanon.  As  we  lift 
the  paean  of  praise  to  Almighty  God  for  the 
garnered  sheaves  of  the  world-harvest,  let  us  not 
forget  that  spirit  of  the  past  which  gave  humanity 
such  missionaries  as  John  Elliot,  David  and  John 
Brainerd. 

In  the  early  decades  of  the  century,  Presbyterian 
interest  in  world-wide  missions  was  expressed 
through  the  "  American  Board  of  Commissioners  of 
Foreign  Missions  "  organized  in  1810.  This  board 
absorbed  the  "  United  Foreign  Missionary  Society  " 
organized  in  181 7  by  the  Presbyterian,  the  Reformed 
Dutch  and  the  Associate  Reformed  Churches.  It 
was  not  until  1831  that  a  distinctly  Presbyterian 
foreign  missionary  organization  was  formed  by  the 
Synod  of  Pittsburg,  entitled  "  The  Western  Foreign 
Missionary  Society."  This  formed  the  nucleus  of 
the  Presbyterian  Board  created  in  1837  by  the  Old 
School  Assembly,  after  separation  from  the  New 
School.  The  New  School  Assembly  continued  to 
support  the  American  Board  until  the  reunion  of 


116  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

1870,  since  which  event  the  present  Board,  with  its 
headquarters  in  New  York,  has  been  the  organ  of 
the  Church  for  evangelizing  the  unbelieving  world. 
Its  first  home  was  at  No.  29  Centre  Street,  still  dear 
to  the  memory  of  some  of  us.  Thence,  in  1888,  the 
offices  were  transferred  to  the  old  Lenox  house,  No. 
53  Fifth  Avenue,  where  they  continued  until  1895; 
when  all  the  Church's  Boards  centered  in  New  York 
were  transferred  to  the  splendid  mission  building  at 
No.  156  Fifth  Avenue. 

In  that  noble  edifice  you  may  stand  beside  one  of 
the  faithful  secretaries  or  one  of  their  devoted 
helpers,  and  put  your  finger  upon  the  religious 
pulse  of  the  world.  Call  the  roll  of  the  continents. 
Our  Church  is  or  has  been  in  every  one.  Call  the 
roll  of  the  heathen  nations.  Our  Church  has  mis- 
sion stations  in  all  the  great  peoples  of  Paganism. 
The  Indians  have  been  transferred  to  the  Home 
Board,  but  still  both  the  Americas  are  represented 
there.  Africa  is  there,— poor,  unhappy,  oppressed 
Africa,  that  reached  out  her  hands  to  give  a  home 
to  the  Saviour  of  men,  when  he  fled  from  his  native 
country  to  escape  the  murderer's  hand,  and  that  still 
reaches  out  hands  to  God  and  to  his  people  pleading 
for  the  gospel.  Asia  is  represented  by  the  splendid 
missions  in  India,  Siam,  Laos,  China,  Japan,  Korea, 
Syria,  and  Persia.  Europe  has  no  official  rep- 
resentative now,  except  in  the  sympathetic  aid  and 
countenance  given  to  the  evangelical  cause  in 
France,  and  in  Italy  where  the  sons  of  the  Wal- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  117 

denses  are  bearing  throughout  their  sunny  valleys 
the  standard  of  a  pure  gospel  which  so  long  had 
floated  on  the  peaks  of  the  Cottian  Alps.  And 
there,  too,  you  may  come  in  touch  with  the  last 
and  largest  of  our  American  acquisitions,  the 
Philippine  Archipelago.  Our  beloved  Church  has 
bound  a  zone  of  Christian  love  and  helpfulness 
around  the  world.  She  is  catholic ;  she  is  cosmo- 
politan ;  she  is  polyglot ;  she  is  Pentecostal !  All 
the  chief  ethnic  religions  she  has  brought  in  contact 
with  Christianity.  We  have  heard  the  divine 
Master's  voice,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
disciple  the  nations."  How  far  short  we  have 
come,  we  know  and  humbly  acknowledge.  But  it 
is  highly  becoming  that  we  praise  God  on  this  com- 
memorative day  for  the  grace  he  has  given,  and  for 
the  triumphs  of  his  grace  which  he  has  wrought 
through  us. 

This  progress  has  not  been  achieved  without 
sacrifice.  Of  money  ?  Yes.  But  one  shames  to 
speak  of  that  in  the  same  breath  with  the  costly 
sacrifices  of  the  heroic  and  saintly  men  and  women 
who  have  borne  the  cross,  as  our  representatives, 
into  pagan  lands.  We  remember  to-day  the  worthy 
confessors  who  by  suffering,  sickness,  and  silent 
death,  have  been  our  Lord's  witnesses.  We  will 
think  of  the  slain  witnesses  whom  God  honored  with 
a  place  in  the  noble  army  of  martyrs, — from  our 
proto-martyr,  Walter  Lowrie,  who  passed  through 
the  waters  to  the  Throne  before  the  sea  of  glass,  to 


118  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

the  last  of  those  who  witnessed  with  their  lives, 
Taylor,  the  Hodges,  the  Simcoxes,  who  passed 
through  the  furnace  of  fire  to  the  eternal  corona- 
tion of  the  blessed.  Strange,  both  our  first  and  our 
last  martyrs  fell  at  the  hand  of  the  Chinese ! 
Surely,  by  their  blood  that  great  empire  is  sealed 
more  sacredly  than  ever  as  the  possession  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ! 

XII 

The  Growth  of  Philanthropy 

In  nothing  has  the  Church  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury been  more  noteworthy  than  in  the  growth  of 
practical  philanthropy.  The  temperance  reform  has 
won  its  most  notable  victories  in  the  United  States. 
The  drinking  habits  of  Europe  were  inherited  by 
our  Colonial  ancestors,  and  wine  and  strong  drinks 
were  commonly  used  by  ministers  and  elders  and 
people  one  hundred  years  ago.  They  were  not, 
however,  conspicuously  devoted  to  liquors,  as  has 
been  generally  believed  and  slanderously  asserted, 
especially  from  the  perverted  popular  views  of  the 
so-called  "Whiskey  Insurrection  of  Western  Penn- 
sylvania. The  counties  of  that  State  in  which  the 
Presbyterian  element  was  strongest,  and  still  largely 
prevails,  are  now  the  most  thoroughgoing  tem- 
perance and  prohibition  communities.  The  deliver- 
ances of  our  General  Assembly  in  behalf  of  total 
abstinence  again  and  again  repeated  have  not  been 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  119 

excelled  in  vigor  and  point  by  any  body  of  Chris- 
tians. 

The  sentiment  of  our  Church,  voiced  and  led  by 
our  Temperance  Committee,  is  overwhelmingly  in 
favor  of  total  abstinence,  and  of  restrictive  or  pro- 
hibitive legislation  against  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  intoxicants.  That  noble  organization,  the 
Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  has  drawn 
an  army  of  recruits  from  our  communion.  One  of 
the  earliest  and  warmest  champions  of  temperance 
was  the  Kev.  Elisha  Macurdy  of  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania. At  a  later  date  arose  such  leaders  as  John 
Chambers  of  Philadelphia,  known  as  the  "  War 
Horse "  of  Temperance ;  the  venerable  and  vener- 
ated Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  who  still  lives  and  main- 
tains a  catholic  bishopric  in  the  churches,  and  that 
incomparable  and  heroic  champion,  Thomas  Hunt, 
whose  courage,  eloquence,  tact  and  wit  won  him  a 
foremost  place  among  platform  orators. 

The  anti-slavery  cause  had  many  of  its  most  con- 
spicuous advocates  within  our  fold.  The  ringing 
deliverance  of  1818,  represented  the  sentiments  of 
our  fathers,  and  it  was  never  canceled  by  their 
sons  ;  although  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  days 
came  when  in  many  sections,  it  was  neutralized  by 
the  advance  of  pro-slavery  sentiment  and  sympathy. 
Yet  there  was  always  a  large  remnant  who  refused 
to  lower  the  standard,  and  the  majority  of  our  com- 
municants were  always  opposed  to  slavery.  Had 
the  leaders  of  later  days  been  more  faithful  to  the 


120  TWENTIETH   CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

early  record,  our  country  might  have  been  saved 
the  fratricidal  strife  of  the  Civil  War  of  the  '60's. 
Nevertheless,  it  came  about,  in  God's  providence,  that 
he  who  gave  forth  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipa- 
tion that  destroyed  American  Negro  slavery,  was  a 
worshiper  in  the  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Washington,  whose  pew  still  remains  un- 
touched by  modern  improvements,  a  patriotic  relic 
of  our  first  martyred  President,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

That  emancipation  thrust  upon  the  nation  and 
the  churches  a  duty  which  Presbyterians  were  not 
slow  to  undertake.  The  Board  of  Missions  to 
Freedmen  was  organized,  and  with  unfailing  fidelity 
and  rare  success  has  planted  and  is  maintaining 
schools,  colleges,  seminaries,  and  churches,  among 
American  citizens  of  African  descent.  No  work 
wrought  for  our  Master  has  superior  claims  upon 
our  support  as  Christians,  philanthropists,  and  pa- 
triots. 

In  practical  charities  our  Church  has  made  enor- 
mous progress.  The  first  American  eleemosynary 
institutions  were  upon  Union  foundations,  and  they 
received  from  our  membership  a  liberal  and  often  a 
chief  support  in  money  and  oversight.  Distinct- 
ively Presbyterian  charities  were  hardly  known 
before  the  middle  of  the  century.  It  was  after  the 
Reunion  of  18Y0  that  the  Church  awoke  to  the  duty 
of  providing  for  those  of  her  own  household,  and 
thus  proving  her  fidelity  to  the  faith.  Hospitals, 
Asylums,  Homes  for  Widows  and  Single  Women, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  121 

for  Old  Men  and  for  Aged  Couples,  Orphanages,  and 
Training  Schools  for  Nurses — all  under  the  name 
and  foster  of  our  own  Church,  sprang  up  in  our 
chief  cities  and  towns.  Some  of  these  are  not  ex- 
celled by  any  like  institutions  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica. Our  Assembly  provides  no  special  statistical 
column  for  such  charities,  and  one  can  make  no 
official  and  accurate  estimate  of  their  extent  and 
value.  But  the  money  so  placed  in  these  holy  in- 
vestments must  mount  into  the  millions. 

The  good  work  goes  on  and  will  go  on.  The 
spirit  and  behest  of  Christianity  cover  with  the 
mantle  of  divine  love  the  poor,  the  needy,  the  suf- 
fering, the  helpless,  the  incurables.  In  nothing 
does  our  Church  so  fully  express  the  divine  char- 
acter of  Jesus  and  the  infinite  compassion  of  the 
All-Father.  This  revival  of  Christian  charity,  the 
only  lasting  philanthropy,  is  the  Great  Awakening 
of  the  closing  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
It  supplemented  the  Great  Eeligious  Awakening 
of  the  early  years,  which  led  men  to  conviction  of 
sin  and  to  personal  consecration  of  their  lives  in 
holy  faith  to  Jesus  Christ,  their  Saviour.  These 
elements  of  the  religious  life  and  character  are  not 
antagonistic.  They  are  bound  together  by  the 
benediction  of  God  in  the  holiest  wedlock.  May 
they  never  be  put  asunder !  The  Holy  Spirit  of 
love  who  wins  a  soul  to  the  obedience  of  Christ,  is 
the  same  Holy  Spirit  of  love  that  sets  the  soul  upon 
the  pathway  of  human  charity  and  helpfulness. 


122  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

XIII 

A   PREDICTION   OF   THE    HISTORIC   SPIRIT 

History,  like  natural  and  physical  science,  can 
never  be  said  to  have  perfected  its  function  until  it 
can  prophesy.  The  knowledge  drawn  from  the 
past  should  be  the  safe  ground  for  predicting  the 
future.  God's  laws  are  changeless.  Man's  nature  and 
needs  are  the  same  in  all  ages  and  races.  That  which 
has  been  shall  be,  and  there  is  nothing  new  under 
the  sun.  Therefore,  we  may  always  look  for  the 
recurring  spirit  of  the  Olden  Time  to  dominate  the 
thought  and  actions  of  men,  even  though  it  be  re- 
vealed under  new  methods  adapted  to  the  varying 
conditions  of  humanity  in  different  eras.  It  is  not 
without  reason,  therefore,  that  standing  to-day  on 
the  border  of  a  new  century,  and  looking  back  over 
the  past,  and  regarding  the  tendencies  of  the  pres- 
ent, we  may  venture  to  predict  some  things  con- 
cerning the  kingdom  and  Church  of  Christ  in 
whose  upbuilding  God  has  given  us  a  worthy  part. 

In  the  twentieth  century  Christ  will  remain  the 
central  figure  in  the  Church.  Theology  will  be 
Christo-centric.  The  advance  in  foreign  missions, 
the  most  remarkable  of  the  religious  phenomena  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  will  not  be  retarded. 
Christianity  must  push  forward  to  its  inevitable 
destiny.  Every  creature  under  the  circle  of  the 
sun  must  have  a  knowledge  of  Jesus  the  Saviour. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  123 

Christian  ethics,  the  pure  morals  of  the  gospel,  must 
be  carried  with,  and  as  part  of,  the  religion  of  Jesus. 
The  elevation  of  the  human  race  as  a  consequence 
of  its  evangelization  will  proceed. 

The  social  problems  which  have  exercised  the 
human  mind  during  the  last  half  century  will  be- 
come dearer  to  the  Church.  The  ministry  and  laity 
alike  will  recognize  a  Christian  Communism ;  that 
the  brotherhood  of  man  is  an  essential  feature  of 
Christianity.  To  eliminate  it  cuts  the  core  out  of 
our  religion.  The  very  foundation  truth  of  Christ's 
system  of  religion,  morals,  and  sociology,  is  the 
brotherhood  of  man  in  Christ,  and  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  over  all. 

More  and  more  the  Church  must  become  one  in 
spirit.  The  barriers  dividing  denominations  and 
families  of  Christianity  may  not  be  removed,  prob- 
ably will  not  be ;  but  they  will  be  so  lowered  that 
over  them  Christian  hearts,  under  whatever  form 
of  Christianity,  can  feel  the  beat  of  a  common 
brotherhood. 

The  Church  of  the  future  will  be  a  teaching 
Church.  Doctrines  are  essential  to  the  vitality  of 
Christianity.  The  cry  against  doctrinal  preaching 
is  imbecile.  Christ  was  "  Master,"  that  is  teacher. 
His  first  followers  were  "  disciples,"  that  is  schol- 
ars. A  religion  without  thought,  that  does  not 
appeal  to  the  intellectual  as  well  as  to  the  moral 
and  emotional  nature,  cannot  live  permanently 
among  men.     To  take  doctrine  from  Christianity  is 


124  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

to  emasculate  it.  An  invertebrate  preaching  will 
never  hold  mankind. 

The  Church  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be 
more  and  more  an  evangelistic  Church.  The 
methods  of  the  earlier  evangelists,  Edwards,  Fin- 
ney, Nettleton,  Park,  Beecher,  Baker,  and  of  the 
prince  of  all  evangelists,  D  wight  L.  Moody,  may 
not  be  continued,  will  doubtless  be  modified ;  but 
their  spirit  will  animate  the  Church.  The  gospel 
must  be  preached  at  home.  "  Beginning  at  Jeru- 
salem "  is  the  law  of  Jesus.  City  missions,  home 
missions,  the  evangelization  of  those  next  door  to 
us,  the  saving  of  men  from  their  sins  as  well  as 
from  the  consequences  of  their  sins,  will  be  the 
mighty  purpose  of  the  preachers  and  of  the  Chris- 
tian Churches  of  the  coming  century. 

The  twentieth  century  Church  will  continue  to 
be  a  singing  Church.  The  spirit  of  song  brought 
in  by  the  Wesleys  and  the  early  Methodists,  which 
has  been  so  wonderfully  developed,  will  not  be 
suppressed.  Yet  there  will  certainly  be  a  return  in 
some  degree  to  the  Psalmody  of  the  earlier  Chris- 
tianity. The  Psalms  of  David  have  been  well-nigh 
banished  from  our  sanctuaries.  They  must  come 
back  again,  and  take  their  place  side  by  side  with 
the  inspiring,  and  one  might  say,  the  inspired 
hymns  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries. 

The  twentieth  century  will  see  the  complete 
reconciliation  between  the  pulpit  and  the  labora- 
tory.    The  conflict  between   science   and  religion 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  125 

must  cease.  There  never  was  any  real  ground  for 
it.  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God.  All 
works  of  God  praise  him,  and  the  Church  should 
be  the  first  to  see  this  and  the  firmest  to  assert  it. 
All  new  knowledge  is  treasure-trove  for  King 
Jesus.  There  is  nothing  in  science,  in  itself  con- 
sidered, to  inculcate  doubt.  Scientific  doubts  do 
not  differ  from  other  doubts  which  are  generated 
by  the  natural  frailty  of  unregenerated  nature,  and 
the  inevitable  quest  of  honest  souls  for  truth  in  the 
midst  of  life's  deep  mysteries.  Most  of  the  high 
priests  of  science  in  the  nineteenth  century  have 
been  believers  in  God  and  in  Christ.  Davy,  Her- 
schel,  Farraday,  Henry,  Agassiz,  Humboldt,  Helm- 
holtz,  Yirchow,  Owen,  Clark-Maxwell,  Pasteur, 
Dana,  Gray,  Carruthers,  Goode,  Cresson,  Lord  Kel- 
vin (Sir  William  Thompson),  Sir  Win.  Dawson — 
and  a  host  of  others  who  have  stood  upon  the 
loftiest  pinnacles  of  science  have  all  been  believers 
in  Unseen  Things.  The  antagonism  which  was  so 
manifest  in  the  middle  of  the  century  has  already 
begun  to  disappear.  The  Church  has  learned  a 
lesson,  as  well  as  men  of  science.  She  will  not  be 
so  ready  in  the  future  to  suspect  scientific  dis- 
coveries, however  radical  at  first  they  may  seem, 
but  will  hold  out  a  hospitable  hand  to  all  natural 
truth. 

Science  has  been  a  most  helpful  handmaid  to  re- 
ligion. The  world-wide  triumphs  of  Christianity 
have  been  made  possible  by  the  achievements  of 


126  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

explorers,  inventors,  physicists,  which  have  opened 
up  new  countries  and  the  old  continents  to  civiliza- 
tion. Commerce  and  the  Church  of  Christ  have 
advanced  side  by  side,  sometimes  one  leading,  some- 
times the  other.  Archaeology,  ethnology,  anthro- 
pology, have  contributed  freely  to  confirm  the 
veracity  of  Holy  Scripture.  This  helpfulness  will 
increase  with  every  decade  of  the  new  century. 

The  nineteenth  century  has  seen  great  divisions 
and  great  healings  of  divisions  in  our  beloved  Zion. 
The  twentieth  century  will  be  one  of  consolidation 
and  closer  union.  The  first  breach  was  the  out- 
going of  the  Cumberland  Presbytery  which  proved 
the  nucleus  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  disruption  of  1837  followed,  and,  after  a  full 
generation  of  separate  life,  the  Old  School  and  the 
New  School  assemblies  again  became  one  in  the 
autumn  of  1869.  The  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  of 
1861  sent  another  line  of  cleavage  through  the 
Church,  which  issued  in  the  creation  of  the  South- 
ern General  Assembly.  It  is  a  curious  historic 
coincidence  that  the  great  disruptions  of  the  century, 
those  of  1837  and  1861,  occurred  in  the  first  and 
second  sanctuaries  of  the  Church  and  congregation 
of  which  your  speaker  has  the  honor  to  be  pastor. 
The  day  shall  come,  though  he  may  not  live  to  see 
it  with  earthly  vision,  when  the  last  division  like 
the  first  shall  be  healed,  and  brethren  who  were 
separated  by  the  barriers  of  civil  war  shall  be 
reunited  in  the  ecclesiastical  faith,  order,  and  com- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  127 

munion,  of  their  common  ancestors.  When  that 
good  day  shall  come,  it  shall  be  in  order  for  the 
pastor  and  people  of  the  Tabernacle  Presbyterian 
Church  to  invite  that  Reunion  General  Assembly 
which  shall  bind  together  the  Churches  of  the 
North  and  South,  to  meet  in  its  third  house  of 
worship.  This  will  be  the  happy  climax  of  a  his- 
toric coincidence  which  made  the  first  and  second 
sanctuaries  the  scene  of  fraternal  struggle  and  sep- 
aration.    God  speed  the  day ! 

The  twentieth  century  will  continue  to  heed  with 
growing  affection  and  fidelity  our  Lord's  behest, 
"  Feed  my  lambs."  The  children  of  the  Covenant 
will  be  acknowledged,  and  taught  to  acknowledge 
themselves  as  "  Christian  children,"  by  holy  birth- 
right members  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  Sabbath- 
school  methods  will  change,  but  the  nurturing 
spirit  will  abide.  The  Home  Department  will  en- 
large and  embrace  the  Church  membership.  The 
Bible  will  be  loved  and  used  with  increasing  devotion, 
and  with  a  reverence  that  cannot  be  broken,  as 
God's  Book  of  Life  for  old  and  young.  The  asso- 
ciations of  young  men  and  young  women,  and 
societies  of  Christian  Endeavor,  will  prove  their 
right  to  a  name  and  place  in  the  sanctuary  and  under 
the  Church's  wing.  The  men  of  the  Church  will 
learn  at  last  the  value  of  organization  for  Christian 
work,  as  their  sisters  in  the  faith  already  have 
learned  it,  and  the  Church's  power,  influence,  and 
gifts,  will  largely  increase.     Christians  shall  appre- 


128  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

ciate  at  its  full  value  the  influence  of  Christian 
literature  and  a  Christian  press  for  the  vindication 
of  Christian  truth,  and  for  the  maintenance  of 
Christian  character  and  life  among  the  followers  of 
Jesus. 

Above  all  else  the  host  of  God  in  the  Presby- 
terian corps  shall  bear  aloft  with  ever  waxing 
fervor,  faith,  and  intelligence,  the  banner  of 
Love ;  love  of  God ;  love  of  the  brethren  ;  love  of 
the  souls  of  men,  and  that  holy  charity  which  runs 
with  daily  relief  to  all  the  brotherhood  of  man 
whose  wants  and  sorrows  shall  call  for  brotherly 
aid.  The  twentieth  century  will  be  a  century  of 
Action  inspired  by  Duty  and  Love. 

"  Here  by  his  love  is  his  Church  led  forth 
From  the  East  and  West,  from  the  South  and  North, 

"  Ever  a  pilgrim,  thro'  snow,  thro'  heat, 
Thro'  life,  thro'  death,  till  she  kiss  Love's  feet. 

"  Yea,  my  God,  till  her  glad  eyes  see 
Love,  the  Lord  of  Eternity  !  "  1 

Fathers  and  Brethren : — You  have  met  for  this 
historic  commemoration  on  historic  ground.  The 
national  shrines  which  are  seated  here  have  been 
made  hallowed  in  a  large  degree  by  the  patriotic 
devotion  of  your  ancestors.  Therein  Witherspoon 
plead  for  independence,  and  Charles  Thomson,  the 
ruling  elder,  kept  the  records  of  that  first  and  great 
Congress  that  rocked  the  cradle  of  liberty.     Here 

1  Bishop  Chad  wick  of  Ireland :  "  Poems  Chiefly  Sacred." 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  129 

Elias  Boudinot  presided  over  a  Congress  where  the 
Presbyterian  Bishops,  George  "W".  Duffield  and 
Ashbel  Green  offered  prayers  to  the  nation's  God 
as  chaplains,  conjointly  with  the  Episcopal  Bishop 
White.  Here  John  Eodgers,  soldier,  patriot,  and 
friend  of  Washington,  presided  over  the  first  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  which,  small  as  it  was,  held  many 
commissioners,  who  like  McWhorter  and  Woodhull 
and  Latta  and  Azel  Koe,  had  helped,  on  many 
foughten  fields,  to  win  our  national  independence. 

Here  began  the  organic  life  of  your  Reverend 
and  Venerable  Body  as  General  Presbytery,  as 
General  Synod,  and  as  General  Assembly  (1788). 
Here  in  1758  was  healed  the  first  great  division  of 
the  Church,  that  of  1741.  Here  the  first  Reunion 
Assembly  of  1870  was  held,  as  here  also  the  great 
disruptions  had  occurred  in  1837  and  in  1861. 
Here,  three  of  the  important  Commissions  of  the 
Assembly,  the  Boards  of  Education,  of  Ministerial 
Relief,  and  of  Publication,  are  domiciled.  Here,  in 
your  beautiful  Witherspoon  Building,  whose  very 
outer  walls  give  forth  "  sermons  in  stones  "  of  the 
history  of  your  life  and  progress,  you  may  visit  the 
halls  of  the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society  which 
represents  catholic  Presbyterianism  in  America, 
although  your  venerable  body  holds  thereto  the 
relation  of  elder  brother. 

And  here  you  may  see  "  without  money  and 
without  price"  the  mute  assembly  of  the  heroes 
and  heroines  of  your  past  history,  marshaled,  by 

9 


130  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

the  liberality  of  Philadelphia  Presbyterians  and  the 
generous  support  of  many  ecclesiastical  and  educa- 
tional and  charitable  institutions,  in  the  "  Historical 
and  Missionary  Exhibition"  held  in  our  beautiful 
Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts. 

Surely,  you  will  drink  in  somewhat  of  the  spirit 
of  these  surroundings.  You  will  know  more  of 
your  Church's  worthy  record.  You  will  be  quick- 
ened with  new  love  and  zeal  for  her,  and  go  forth 
to  tell  unto  your  children,  as  did  the  Hebrew 
fathers  at  the  paschal  supper,  the  great  things  that 
God  has  wrought  through  the  nursing  fathers  of 
your  ancestral  faith. 

The  symbol  of  the  Church  of  Philadelphia  of  the 
Apocalypse  was  an  open  door.  Fitly  an  open  door 
has  been  chosen  as  the  device  upon  the  Seal  of  your 
ancient  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia.  Within  that 
door  is  displayed  a  figure  of  "  the  key  of  the  house 
of  David."  It  is  the  graceful  and  grateful  office  of 
Philadelphia  pastors  and  churchmen  to  set  before 
you  that  open  door,  and  to  place  in  your  hands  the 
key  of  that  historic  house  of  the  Lord  which  has 
been  made  great  by  the  toils  and  pains  of  the  men 
and  women  of  the  past ;  which  has  been  made 
greater  still  by  the  pains  and  toils,  the  sacrifices, 
the  sufferings,  the  generous  gifts  of  money,  the  yet 
more  generous  gifts  of  time  and  strength  and 
health  and  energy,  by  which  all  that  this  Assembly 
represents  has  been  made  possible  in  the  dawn  of 
the    twentieth   century.     Behold   the   open   door ! 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  131 

Keceive  the  key  !  Enter  into  the  house,  this  house 
beautiful.  Behold  the  grandeur  of  those  trophies 
that  everywhere  abound,  and  go  forth  with  that 
key  in  your  hands  to  unlock  to  others  those  historic 
treasures  that  to-day,  more  than  ever,  are  made 
your  own. 


THE    DIVINE    PURPOSE   DEVELOPED 
IN  THE  PROGRESS  OF  TIME 


BY  THE 

REV.  HENRY  COLLIN  MINTON,  D.  D. 


THE  DIVINE  PUKPOSE  DEVELOPED  IN 
THE  PKOGKESS  OF  TIME 

BY  THE 

EEV.  HENRY  COLLIN  MINTON,  D.  D. 


It  is  no  great  idea  or  achievement  of  ours  which 
has  furnished  the  occasion  for  these  interesting 
exercises  to-day.  The  unique  event  which  we  are 
celebrating  came  to  pass  altogether  without  our 
authority  and  without  our  assistance.  The  moving 
centuries  never  pause  to  avail  themselves  of  our 
opinion  concerning  them.  The  old  century  turned 
its  back  upon  us  wholly  indifferent  to  our  regard, 
and  the  new  one  has  taken  forcible  possession  of  us 
without  consulting  our  interest  or  our  consent. 
The  broad  river  wends  its  way  down  toward  the 
sea,  indifferent  to  the  ships  that  plow  its  surface, 
and  to  the  busy  scenes  of  industry  with  which  its 
banks  are  fringed.  Down  its  own  chosen  channel 
it  smoothly  glides,  unmoved  by  the  ambitions  and 
tumults  and  rivalries  and  conquests  of  men.  Like 
the  noiseless  flow  of  the  peaceful  river,  the  proces- 
sion of  the  ages  moves  solemnly  on,  unconcerned 
with  the  shifting  of  the  scenes,  heedless  of  the 
fortunes  of  the  actors,  unresponsive  to  the  comedies 

135 


136  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

and  tragedies  which  are  ushered  in  and  then,  in 
turn,  are  discharged  into  oblivion. 

I  suppose  it  should  not  be  counted  very  strange 
if  the  advance  out  of  the  nineteenth  century  of  the 
Christian  era  into  the  twentieth  should  give  fresh 
vigor  to  the  historical  spirit  and  new  emphasis  to 
the  historical  method.  Such  an  epoch,  command- 
ing universal  interest  and  signalizing  in  a  peculiar 
manner,  as  it  does,  the  onward  passage  of  time,  is 
a  sublime  reminder  that  the  great  volume  of  history 
is  being  constantly  and  rapidly  enlarged.  And  such 
an  impulse  is  wholly  in  keeping  with  a  very  notice- 
able tendency  in  recent  thinking.  How  often  are 
we  impressively  admonished  that  we  must  interpret 
everything  we  know  in  the  light  of  all  the  history 
by  which  it  came  to  be  what  it  is !  With  august 
wisdom  we  are  reminded  that  the  secret  of  all  being 
is  in  its  becoming.  No  certificate  of  character  is 
valid  without  a  sketch  of  the  pedigree  of  its  sub- 
ject. He  who  knows  to-day  but  is  ignorant  of 
yesterday,  knows  nothing.  We  have  no  acquaint- 
ance worth  mentioning  with  our  neighbor  unless 
we  knew  his  father  and  his  father  and  so  on  back 
ad'  infinitum. 

Accordingly,  we  are  fond  of  calling  all  our 
knowledge,  as  well  as  all  our  ignorance,  history. 
The  time  element  is  indispensable.  The  study 
of  nature  is  natural  history ;  the  study  of  the 
world  is  world-history.  Man  is  an  enigma  to 
himself  till  the  mystery  of  his  origin  has  been 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  137 

solved,  till  the  long  road  he  has  traveled  has 
been  traced.  The  shining  firmaments  are  sheer 
chaos  till  the  beautiful  order  into  which  they  have 
somehow  crystallized  has  been  traced  back  to  its  pri- 
mordial star-dust.  The  old  earth  on  which  we  live  is  a 
riddle  till  the  geological  eras  have  been  summoned 
and  have  given  their  luminous  testimony.  And  so 
it  is  that  nebular  hypotheses  and  prehistoric  origins 
have  been  put  forth  as  the  richest  finds  of  nine- 
teenth-century research,  and,  with  vastly  extended 
areas  and  microscopic  vision,  the  emancipated  intel- 
lect would  fain  wrest  its  treasured  secrets  from  the 
coffers  of  the  speechless  past. 

We  can  have  no  other  interest  in  this  tendency  of 
thought  just  now  than  to  take  note  that  it  exists. 
The  present  moment  is  a  cross-section  of  the  eternal 
ages ;  the  present  age  is  but  a  link  in  the  chain 
which  stretches  "  from  everlasting  to  everlasting." 
Progress,  development,  becoming,  evolution,  history, 
— whatever  we  may  name  it — is  pronounced  the 
sign  by  which  we  are  to  conquer,  and  this  sign,  as 
if  by  magic,  makes  unmeasured  aeons  the  measur- 
ing units,  and  bewildering  world-cycles  as  the  brief 
span  of  a  single  day. 

But  such  a  comprehensive  programme  means  a 
philosophy  of  history.  Every  student  of  history  is 
a  philosopher  in  disguise.  If  a  science  of  history  is 
possible  it  is  because  history  is  itself  scientific.  "We 
may  bring  our  best  thoughts  to  the  study  of  the 
processes  of  time,  but   we  cannot  put  into  those 


138  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

processes  what  is  not  already  there.  That  all  his- 
tory bears  the  marks  of  mind  is  a  truism  that  is 
venerable  with  age.  The  larger  the  outlook  and 
the  clearer  the  view  which  we  can  command,  the 
more  convincing  is  the  evidence  of  mind  running 
through  it  all.  The  insect  whose  threescore-and- 
ten  is  measured  off  by  a  single  round  on  the  dial- 
plate  of  time  has  an  infinitely  smaller  chance  of 
becoming  a  philosophical  historian  than  has  the 
patient,  painstaking  student  who  follows  up  the 
successive  stages  in  the  making  and  maturing  of  a 
world.  The  spontaneous  and  instinctive  impulse  of 
the  mind  is  to  decipher  the  lessons  with  which  the 
ages  of  the  past  are  richly  charged.  The  astron- 
omer is  spelling  out  the  schedule  of  the  stars ;  and 
the  science  of  geology  is  the  tracing  of  mind  in  its 
slow  and  steady  march  along  the  highway  of  the 
unrecorded  ages.  The  vast  cosmos  of  which  we  are 
a  part  stretches  back  through  countless  ages  of  time 
as  well  as  out  through  boundless  areas  of  space. 
Evolution,  writ  large  or  small,  is  but  a  high-sound- 
ing name  for  confusion  if  its  processes  are  not 
instinct  with  intelligence,  and  guided  at  every  point 
by  a  pervading  reason  and  a  controlling  purpose. 

Nor  is  all  this  true  only  in  the  lower  regions  of 
inorganic  matter.  Life  itself,  that  stubborn  conun- 
drum, of  human  wisdom,  is  richer  and  nobler  only 
because  it  is  more  replete  with  the  complex  beau- 
ties of  an  ever-present  intelligence.  In  the  mar- 
velous   spheres   of    vital   phenomena,   organs  and 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  139 

functions  answer  to  each  other  as  the  voice  of 
prophecy  is  answered  by  its  event,  as  the  cry  of  a 
need  by  its  satisfaction,  or  as  the  meaning  of  a  pur- 
pose by  its  realization ;  all  in  mutual  harmony 
within  a  little  system  complete  in  itself  and  yet  con- 
stituting only  a  fragmentary  and  integral  part  of 
the  larger  and  nobler  macrocosm  which  is  itself  the 
consummate  expression  of  that  one  supreme  unfold- 
ing purpose  for  the  fulfillment  of  which  the  dynamic 
word  of  creative  power  spoke  all  the  worlds  into 
being. 

Now,  if  all  this  is  true,  it  is  yet  more  true  when 
we  ascend  to  the  purer  realms  of  free  moral  and 
responsible  being.  And  here  too,  not  less  than  on 
lower  levels,  we  find  men  everywhere  striving  to 
thread  the  mazes  in  search  of  some  informing  prin- 
ciple and  plan.  The  history  of  man,  in  its  magnifi- 
cent perspective,  meets  the  inquiring  mind  at  every 
point  with  unmistakable  evidences  of  a  designing 
mind  which  controls  the  forces  and  shapes  the  out- 
lines of  the  whole.  A  Palestine  or  a  Rome  in  his- 
tory stands  out,  like  a  mountain  against  the  sky,  as 
the  embodiment  of  some  one  idea.  Every  fact  has 
its  meaning ;  every  nation  teaches  its  lesson  ;  every 
age  bears  its  own  prophetic  burden.  Every  king  or 
sage  or  hero  or  saint  whose  name  has  withstood 
oblivion  is  a  messenger  to  the  twentieth  century, 
charged  with  his  own  special  message.  Hegel  saw 
everywhere  in  human  history  a  clear-cut,  logical 
development  of  pure  reason ;  the  page  of  the  past  is 


140  TWENTIETH   CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

but  a  transcript  of  one  progressively  unfolding 
idea ;  and  although  our  eyes  may  lack  the  keenness 
of  the  Hegelian  vision,  yet  even  to  us  it  must  be 
clear  that  the  history  of  man  can  be  known  at  all 
only  in  so  far  as  in  some  sense  it  is  the  out-working 
of  an  intelligible  idea,  the  development  of  a  know- 
able  plan.  It  lies  as  a  sleeping  postulate  in  the 
background  of  our  thought  in  all  our  study  of 
man's  history  that  in  the  rise  and  fall  of  empires, 
in  the  ups  and  downs  of  dynasties,  in  the  genera- 
tions and  degenerations  and  regenerations  of  races 
and  customs  and  philosophies  and  religions,  not  less 
than  in  the  making  of  a  star  or  the  cooling  of 
a  satellite,  not  less  than  in  the  forming  of  a  fog- 
bank  or  the  tinting  of  a  rosebud,  the  forces  which 
are  at  work  are  ever  doing  the  bidding  of  intelli- 
gence ;  they  are  in  their  orderly  and  appointed  suc- 
cessions contributing  their  parts  to  the  final  con- 
summation of  the  one  grand  underlying  and  over- 
arching plan.  This  is  the  "  one  increasing  purpose  " 
running  through  the  ages ;  and  men's  minds  are 
widened  as  they  catch  glimpses  of  its  vast  scope 
and  rise  to  the  mighty  majesty  of  its  meaning. 

All  this  is  not  mere  philosophy,  though  it  is 
soundest  philosophy;  it  is  not  science  merely, 
although  there  can  be  no  science  without  it.  It  is 
essentially  a  deep  spiritual  reflection,  a  devout 
religious  attitude.  It  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of 
an  intelligent  faith  in  God,  and,  under  God,  in  man 
and  the  world  and  the  course  of  things. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  141 

This  great  truth,  many-sided  and  far-reaching  as 
it  is,  the  franchise  of  religions,  the  foundation  of 
theologies,  the  very  possibility  of  a  graciously  self- 
revealing  God,  is  not  the  exclusive  possession  of 
any  one  school  or  creed.  It  is  broader  than  any 
system,  it  is  larger  than  any  sect.  But  it  has  been 
the  peculiar  glory  of  the  Reformed  Churches  in  the 
history  of  Protestantism  that,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  they  have  made  this  mighty  truth  the  deepest 
foundation  of  their  Christian  faith.  They  have 
reverently  compared  revealed  truth  with  the  wisest 
thought  of  the  human  mind,  and  they  have  found 
them  testifying  in  harmony  that  the  only  key  which 
will  fit  the  problems  of  world-history  is  in  the  single 
truth  that  God  rules.  "  The  Lord  God  omnipotent 
reigneth."  They  have  emphasized  the  divine  in 
the  past,  the  divine  in  the  outward  processes  of  the 
world,  the  divine  in  the  path  and  in  the  heart  of 
man.  They  have  seen  God  in  all  his  works ;  they 
have  sought  his  stately  stoppings  or  seen  his  silent 
footsteps  everywhere;  they  have  found  neither 
heaven  nor  earth  untenanted  of  their  God;  and 
they  have  had  the  confidence  to  believe  that 
wherever  their  sluggish  perceptions  have  failed  to 
detect  with  satisfying  clearness  the  presence  of  the 
divine,  still  "  behind  the  dim  unknown  "  God  has 
always  stood  "  within  the  shadows,  keeping  watch 
above  his  own." 

Men  have  called  this  fatalism,  but,  unscared  by 
names,  the  Eeformed  Churches  have  only  pressed 


142  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

their  faith  more  closely  to  their  hearts.  Men  have 
called  it  pantheism,  but,  with  all  the  calumnies  and 
caricatures  of  their  faith,  they  have  all  the  more 
stoutly  maintained  that  although  man  is  free,  yes, 
because  man  is  free,  God  rules.  They  have  been 
taunted  with  the  suggestion  that  it  is  but  the  reign 
of  Fate  or  Law  or  Necessity  which  they  acknowl- 
edge, but  they  have  ever  answered  back  that 
eternal  principles  are  not  less  true  because  pagan 
creeds  have  honored  them,  nor  are  they  less  vital 
because  savage  bosoms  have  held  them  sacred ;  and 
they  have  insisted  that  because  men's  minds,  in 
darker  days  and  under  cloudier  skies,  have  failed  to 
apprehend  the  personality  of  the  power  that  gov- 
erns all,  therefore  we  must  not,  in  our  greater  light 
and  wisdom,  declare  that  the  world  must  go  un- 
governed.  Men  have  pointed  in  tones  of  skepticism 
to  the  habitations  of  cruelty,  they  have  sung  plain- 
tive dirges  over  man's  inhumanity  to  man,  they  have 
painted  none  too  deep  and  dark  the  pictures  of 
rivalry  and  strife  and  suffering  and  death,  they 
have  uncovered  the  bottomless  pit,  and,  with  the 
genius  of  a  Dore  or  a  Dante,  have  depicted  the 
haunted  abodes  of  the  hopelessly  lost,  they  have 
ventured  to  the  very  verge  of  that  blackest  of 
mysteries  in  the  great  round  universe  of  thought — 
the  fact  of  sin  in  the  world  of  a  holy  God — still,  as 
they  have  thrust  this  awful  picture  of  night  and 
crimson  and  lurid  flame  athwart  the  peaceful  back- 
ground of  an  eternal  God  who  is  infinite  in  holiness 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  143 

and  wisdom  and  power  and  love,  in  spite  of  all 
their  challenges  and  in  the  teeth  of  all  their  scorn, 
they  have  dared  to  insist  that  notwithstanding  all, 
behind   it  all   and  above  it  all,  "The  Lord  God 
omnipotent  reigneth."     To  let  go  this  one  truth  is 
to  lose  anchor  and  to  drift  out  farther  and  farther 
upon  a  stormy,  angry,  shoreless  sea.    We  believe  that 
God  rules  because  there  is  nothing  else  to  believe. 
If  God  does  not  govern  this  world  then  there  is  no 
government  and  there  is  no  world-ruler,  no  world- 
purpose,  no  world-history.     If  because  men  are  free 
they  can  outlaw  themselves  from  God's  rule,  or,  if 
because  they  are  free  they  can  outlaw  God  from 
their  rule,  then  every  man  is  himself  a  god,  en- 
throned in  the  closed  circuit  of  his  own  petty  little 
world.     This  is  to  make  gods  as  cheap  as  men ;  it  is 
to  make  history  a  pantheon  of  human  deities  swarm- 
ing with  gods  like  the  classic  mountains  of  ancient 
Greece ;  it  is  to  rob  the  world  of  its  one  living  and 
true  God  for  the  myriads  of  contemptible  little 
idols  of  flesh  and  blood,  each  supreme  in  his  own 
self-centered,  self-bound  sphere.     Every  man's  will 
is  absolute;  every  man's  arm  is  almighty;  every 
man's  seat  is  a  throne,  and  against  his  sovereign 
sway  the  scepter  of  high  heaven  falls  to  pieces  and 
the   eternal   throne   crumbles   into   dust.     This  is 
chaos,  not  cosmos ;  this  is  to  make  the  world  not  a 
pantheon  but  a  pandemonium,  subject  to  the  blind 
rule  of  the  mad  mob ;  this  is  polytheism,  not  God 
the  Father  Almighty ;  this  is  madness,  not  reason — 


144  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

the  madness  of  ignoring  God,  the  folly  of  deifying 
self  into  the  glory  of  the  divine. 

This  great  truth  is  a  fundamental  element,  if  it 
be  not  a  differentiating  principle  in  what  modern 
history  has  been  pleased  to  name  Calvinism.  We 
are  not  solicitous  about  names ;  we  have  no  quarrel 
with  our  sensitive  neighbor  who  laments  that  the 
truth  of  God  has  been  christened  in  the  name  of 
weak  and  mortal  man.  We  hold  no  brief  for  the 
estate  or  for  the  fame  of  the  Reformer  of  Geneva. 
However,  that  man  has  not  read  history  wisely  or 
well  who  hastens  to  apologize  overmuch  for  the 
venerable  framers  of  this  God-given  faith.  Such  a 
faith  as  this  is  neither  better  nor  worse  because 
John  Calvin  taught  it ;  it  is  neither  truer  nor  falser 
because  good  men  or  bad  men  have  linked  their 
names  in  history  with  it.  Do  men  talk  of  the 
passing  of  this  faith  in  these  times  of  wide  outlook 
and  high  attainment  ?  Let  them  talk  rather  of  its 
passing  on  and  over  into  the  twentieth  century 
with  more  generous  recognition  and  with  maturer 
and  more  potent  influence  as  men's  thoughts  ex- 
pand. The  essential  truth  of  this  germinal  idea 
that  there  is  one  great  purpose  unfolding  itself  in 
the  progress  of  time,  that  this  purpose  was  con- 
ceived in  the  eternal  counsels  of  the  ever-living 
God,  that  it  comprehends  within  its  compass  "  what- 
soever comes  to  pass," — from  the  falling  of  an 
autumn  leaf  to  the  falling  of  an  archangel  or  of  an 
empire,  from  the  fate  of  a  Marathon  or  a  Waterloo 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  145 

to  the  feeble  cry  of  an  infant  in  the  night — that  in 
all  its  clashing  and  conflicting  elements  and  in  all 
its  mighty  and  marvelous  manifestations,  it  is  ever 
and  everywhere  the  steady,  strong,  self-harmonious 
development  of  that  one  single  unchanging  purpose, 
having  its  worthy  aim  in  the  more  glorious  reveal- 
ings  of  its  divine  author,  and  its  only  worthy  inter- 
pretation in  the  faith  that  sees  the  invisible, — this 
sublime  truth  is  for  no  one  age  or  country  ;  it  is  for 
every  thoughtful  son  of  Adam  who  would  fain 
catch  rational  glimpses  of  the  vast  kaleidoscopic 
panorama  in  the  midst  of  which  he  himself  has 
somehow  been  flung  into  his  place,  and  in  which, 
willing  or  unwilling,  he  is  bound  to  play  his  little 
part.  No  name  in  history  is  so  great  as  to  add  lus- 
ter to  this  mighty  truth  of  God ;  and  no  name  in 
history  is  so  illustrious  but  gains  greater  glory  from 
being  linked  forever  with  it. 

If  this  is  what  the  world  means  by  generic  Cal- 
vinism, then  the  least  that  we  can  say  is  that  Cal- 
vinism is  a  self-consistent,  theistic  rationale  of  the 
world-history  upon  which  men  are  so  intent  to-day. 
It  sees  difficulties,  but  it  focuses  them  in  the  one 
deep  dark  spot  in  all  our  seeing.  It  subordinates 
smaller  truths  to  larger  ones ;  it  insists  that  second- 
cause  contingencies  and  human  free-agency  must 
take  their  place  somehow  and  somewhere  within 
the  scope  of  the  greater  truth  that  a  supreme  pur- 
pose— ever  wise,  ever  loving  and  ever  good — directs 
and  controls  and  governs  all.     It  pleads  guilty  of 

10 


146  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

offending  the  man  who  sneers  at  the  logical  stand- 
ards of  sound  thinking,  and  it  is  a  persistent  stum- 
bling-block to  all  tender  souls  who  regard  self-con- 
sistency as  presumptive  evidence  that  a  system  of 
thought  is  a  system  of  error. 

The  last  and  largest  word  of  sound  philosophy  is 
Personality  ;  the  Reformed  faith  seizes  upon  that 
word  and  devoutly  pronounces  it  God.  The  last 
word  of  sound  empirical  science  is  Force ;  but  we 
remember  that  force  is  only  another  name  for  Will, 
and  "Will  banks  up  into  Personality  again  ;  and,  ac- 
cordingly, the  God  of  rational  science  is  the  Living 
and  True  God.  If  men  tell  us  that  selection  is  a 
ruling  law  in  nature,  we  remind  them  that  selec- 
tion, insulated  from  personality,  is  false  philosoph}' 
and  false  science.  A  personal  power  is  behind  and 
within  every  process  in  nature,  and,  accordingly,  the 
natural  selection  of  science  is  transformed,  in  the 
illuminating  presence  of  the  ultimate  personality, 
into  the  personal  election  of  our  Calvinistic  faith. 
Every  line  in  the  cosmos  leads  back  to  God,  but  a 
God  who  does  not  control  the  world  which  he  has 
made  is  but  the  puppet  of  the  forces  which  hedge 
him  in  and  hold  him  down.  An  atheistic  world  is 
a  scientific  contradiction ;  an  atheistic  universe 
would  turn  sane  philosophy  into  the  mad  ravings 
of  a  disordered  brain.  But  our  faith  must  give 
God  room  and  time  to  work  out  his  eternal  purpose. 
His  divine  plan  spans  the  immeasurable  spaces  be- 
tween the  morning  chorus  of  the  new-made  stars 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  147 

and  the  angelic  annunciation  that  time  shall  be  no 
more.  Our  faith  refuses  to  surrender  what  it  can- 
not comprehend ;  it  scans  the  chasms  which  it  can- 
not bridge ;  it  refers  a  thousand  little  mysteries  to 
the  one  great  mother  mystery,  and  it  traces  every 
clue  back  to  the  changeless  purpose  of  a  personal, 
spiritual  God  whom  the  little  child  lisping  its 
prayer  at  its  mother's  knee  can  truly  know,  and  yet 
who  is  so  great  and  glorious  that  to  the  wisest  of 
the  sages  his  "  judgments  are  unsearchable  and  his 
ways  past  finding  out." 

Possibly  it  had  been  well  if  such  a  divine  phi- 
losophy could  have  been  unscarred  by  calumny  and 
undogged  by  violence,  but  alas,  for  the  thorny  path 
of  truth !  But,  whether  openly  assaulted  or  se- 
cretly betrayed,  it  lives  on  perennial  as  the  very 
truth  of  God.  The  slanders  it  has  survived  and  the 
battles  it  has  fought  would  have  buried  it  fathoms 
deep  had  it  been  only  the  vain  conceit  of  man. 
"When  men  tell  us  that  with  the  frigid  touch  of 
fatalism  it  dishonors  man  and  assassinates  human 
freedom,  we  quietly  point  to  the  page  of  history 
for  its  testimony.  The  fair  blessings  of  liberty 
have  ever  chosen  for  their  most  congenial  home 
those  favored  climes  where  God  alone  is  worshiped 
as  supreme.  If  we  are  told  that  the  stiff  logic  of 
our  faith  would  crown  cruelty  and  enthrone  despot- 
ism, we  call  the  writers  of  history  again  to  witness, 
and  we  wait  only  long  enough  to  hear  our  own 
American  Bancroft  say,  "  The  fanatic  for  Calvinism 


148  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

is  the  fanatic  for  liberty."  "We  point  to  the  moun- 
tain fastnesses  of  Switzerland,  the  cradle  of  consti- 
tutional free  government  in  Europe,  and  we  re- 
member that  this  God-honoring  faith  was  rocked  in 
that  same  Alpine  cradle.  Where  shall  we  go  to 
find  richer  blood  and  truer  mettle  than  the  Hugue- 
nots of  France,  persecuted  at  home  but  warmly 
welcomed  abroad,  have  contributed  to  the  free 
achievements  of  modern  history  ?  Holland  is  small 
on  the  map,  like  Palestine  of  old,  but  Holland  has 
been  for  ages  the  fruitful  soil  of  the  Reformed  faith 
and  to-day,  with  her  fair  young  Presbyterian  queen, 
Holland  may  proudly  inquire  whether  modern  civ- 
ilization, minus  the  Dutch  character  and  stability 
and  love  of  liberty,  would  not  have  scored  an  en- 
tirely different  record.  Scotland,  the  home  of 
Knox  and  Henderson  and  Chalmers  and  Living- 
stone, Scotland,  the  land  of  the  thistle  and  of  the 
heather,  with  its  rugged  fog-capped  cliffs  and  its 
barren  historic  moors,  scarred  by  many  a  conflict 
and  furrowed  by  many  a  plowshare,  dear,  grand  old 
Scotland,  with  all  her  open  faults  and  candid  follies, 
has  hugged  to  her  warm  old  heart  this  rugged  faith 
of  her  fathers,  and  Scotland  has  long  been  the  pro- 
lific motherland  of  great  men  and  great  thoughts 
and  great  things  that  have  blessed  the  world  and 
enriched  the  treasures  of  mankind.  And  what  in- 
telligent man  or  woman  is  there  who  has  failed  to 
observe  how  many  of  the  great  Englishmen  of  his- 
tory and  of  the  present  day  are  Scotchmen,  and 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  149 

moreover,  how  many  of  these  great  Scotchmen 
are  Scotch-Irish  men  ?  But  every  hill  and  valley 
from  which  this  hardy  Presbyterian  race  sprang, 
swept  by  fire  and  sprinkled  with  crimson,  has  been 
consecrated  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Westminster 
Shorter  Catechism  and  to  the  principles  of  human 
liberty. 

"  The  sun  that  rose  on  freedom  rose  on  blood." 

This  one  creed  is  the  mother  of  creeds.  The 
plan  of  God  is  the  hope  of  man.  Optimism  is  a 
vagabond  in  any  land  in  which  men  have  thrown 
aside  a  deep  and  abiding  faith  in  the  sovereign  pur- 
pose of  the  God  of  nations  and  of  men.  It  is  no 
cruel  and  capricious  despot  before  whose  heartless 
sway  we  fall  with  sullen  hate  and  reluctant  fear. 
The  sovereign  God  before  whom  we  bow  in  loving 
reverence  is  no  Moloch  of  brute  force,  raised  to  the 
infinite  degree.  Our  God  is  no  magnified  Augustus 
or  Napoleon.  He  is  a  God  of  infinite  wisdom  and 
he  is  sovereign  in  his  wisdom.  He  is  a  God  of  infi- 
nite glory  and  he  is  sovereign  in  his  glory.  He  is 
a  God  of  infinite  love  and  he  is  sovereign  in  his 
love.  He  is  the  All-Father,  but  he  is  a  sovereign 
Father ;  he  is  the  All-Euler,  but  he  is  a  Father  in 
his  rule.  We  do  not  undeify  God  by  robbing  him 
of  every  attribute  but  that  of  infinite  power,  and 
no  more  would  we  dethrone  him  by  ascribing  to 
him  all  the  other  attributes  of  the  Godhead  while 
yet  we  withhold  from  him  the  scepter  of  his  right- 


150  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

eousness  and  paralyze  his  right  arm  against  the 
doing  of  his  own  holy  will. 

The  little  ant,  moved  by  an  instinct  that  is  God- 
given,  toils  on  diligently  while  the  summer  sky  is 
bright,  and,  although  it  does  not  understand  the  full 
meaning  of  its  task,  a  wisdom  far  greater  than  its 
own  is  working  toward  its  high  end.  The  race  of 
mankind,  a  toiling,  seething,  surging,  struggling 
race,  goes  on  century  by  century,  bending  toward  a 
goal  which  the  lowly  toilers  can  neither  clearly  see 
nor  wholly  know.  Each  plays  his  own  part ;  each 
does  his  own  work ;  his  hand  is  busied  with  his 
own  task  and  his  mind  is  largely  absorbed  in  his 
own  lot.  But  the  humble  worker  knows  that  not 
only  beyond  the  clouds  but  here  and  there  and 
everywhere,  the  will  of  God  is  immanent  and  over 
all  supreme.  His  eternal  purpose  is  slowly  taking 
form  in  time  as  it  marches  on  toward  that 

"  One  far-off  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

There  may  be  noonday  brightness  or  the  darkness 
of  the  midnight  gloom ;  there  may  be  the  angry 
fury  of  the  storm  or  the  peaceful  beauty  of  the  sun 
at  the  hour  of  his  rising  or  of  his  setting ;  there  may 
be  the  groan  of  defeat  and  the  dirge  of  sorrow,  or 
there  may  be  the  shout  of  triumph  and  the  song  of 
hope ;  but  there  is  always  strength  for  the  toiler, 
there  is  always  courage  for  the  fighter,  there  is 
always  a  song  for  the  sufferer  in  knowing  that  in 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  151 

the  final  reckoning  that  is  sure  to  come,  the  eternal 
thought  will  be  gloriously  expressed,  the  divine  pur- 
pose will  be  gloriously  realized. 

The  tides  of  time  will  come  surging  back  to  the 
foot  of  the  throne  whence  when  time  began  they 
issued  forth.  He  who  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the 
Beginning  and  the  End,  the  First  and  the  Last,  shall 
speak  the  word  and  the  great  volume  of  time  will 
be  closed  and  sealed  forever.  He  who  is  the  same 
yesterday  and  to-day  and  forever  is  before  and  after 
and  within  every  force,  every  fact,  every  moment, 
every  movement,  and  every  issue.  All  things  are 
by  him ;  all  things  are  for  him ;  all  things  are  unto 
him  and  "  in  him  all  things  consist." 

This  is  the  philosophy  of  the  truly  wise ;  this  is 
the  confidence  of  the  true  saint  of  God ;  this  is  the 
assurance  of  God's  holy  word.  This  is  the  precious 
truth  we  celebrate  to-day,  standing  on  the  threshold 
of  a  new  century  and  peering  into  its  stormy  pros- 
pects and  uncertain  issues,  with  a  tempered  courage 
and  a  not  unclouded  vision,  and  yet  with  an  ab- 
solutely unwavering  trust  in  the  Lord  God  of 
Israel.  This  is  the  faith  for  which  our  fathers 
stood,  and,  by  the  blessing  of  a  covenant-keeping 
Jehovah,  it  is  the  faith  in  which  our  children  and 
our  children's  children  shall  loyally  and  lovingly 
stand. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TWENTIETH 
CENTURY 


BY  THE 

REV.  GEORGE  TYBOUT  PURVES,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

BY   THE 

EEV.  GEORGE  TYBOUT  PURVES,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


By  "  the  problems  of  the  twentieth  century  "  I 
understand  those  which  present  themselves  to  the 
Church  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  age.  I  shall 
not  confine  myself  however  to  those  which  are 
peculiar  to  Presbyterianism,  but  rather  attempt  a 
survey  of  those  which  we  face  in  common  with 
other  evangelical  branches  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
I  assume  that  we  desire  to  grapple  with  the  largest 
questions;  that  we  are  most  interested  in  the 
problems  which  address  themselves  to  Christian 
men  everywhere ;  that  we  believe  that  we  shall 
best  meet  the  problems  of  our  own  Church's  life  by 
doing  our  share  in  the  solution  of  those  which  con- 
front Christianity  itself. 

The  Christian  Church  has  entered  the  new  cen- 
tury with  her  banners  flying  and  her  regimental 
hosts  in  marching  order.  The  past  century  has  in- 
deed been  one  of  struggle  against  foes  without  and 
within.  But  God  has  wonderfully  upheld  his  truth 
and  blessed  it  to  mankind.  Never  was  Christianity 
so  strong  a  force  in  the  world  as  she  is  to-day. 

155 


156  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Never  has  she  had  so  many  reasons  for  hope  of  the 
promised  and  approaching  victory.  Yet  the  prob- 
lems immediately  before  her  are  many  and  serious. 
We  are  not  prophets.  We  cannot  see  far  into  the 
century.  We  do  not  know  what  change  in  the 
horizon  even  a  decade  may  witness.  It  is  enough 
if  we  look  at  the  immediate  future  and  scan  the 
situation  as  it  lies  directly  before  us.  There  are 
four  problems  or  classes  of  problems  to  which,  as 
the  most  conspicuous,  I  invite  your  attention. 

First,  the  intellectual  problem  as  it  presents  it- 
self to  Christian  faith,  the  problem  of  pure  theology. 
This  of  course  must  be  the  fundamental  one,  and  it 
will  appear  so  especially  to  Presbyterians  since  our 
type  of  Christianity  has  been  prevailingly  intellec- 
tual. We  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  Chris- 
tianity as  a  real  interpretation  of  life  and  of  the 
universe.  As  such  it  addresses  itself  to  the  in- 
telligence. We  have  never  considered  it  as  merely 
the  expression  of  religious  sentiment  nor  as  simple 
ethics.  We  have  always  believed  that  sentiment 
and  morality  must  have  their  foundation  in  a  view 
of  the  relation  of  God  and  the  world  which  the  in- 
telligence apprehends  as  true,  and  that  in  conse- 
quence an  attack  upon  the  intellectual  ideas  which 
Christianity  assumes  or  inculcates  is  the  most 
dangerous,  because  the  most  fundamental,  of  all. 
The  intellectual  problems  which  confront  the  faith 
are  therefore  those  which  demand  the  closest 
scrutiny. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  157 

Yet  at  the  very  outset  we  find  ourselves  forced  to 
meet  the  query,  raised  by  modern  cultivated 
thought,  whether  there  is,  properly  speaking,  an 
intellectual  side  to  religion ;  whether  the  intellectual 
ideas  upon  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  base 
Christian  sentiment  and  duty  have  real  and  per- 
manent validity.  This  is  indeed  the  first  phase  of 
the  religious  problem  of  the  day.  Can  we  justify 
at  the  bar  of  culture  the  affirmations  of  our  religion 
concerning  God  and  his  relation  to  the  world? 
Can  we  justify  the  right  of  any  religious  authority, 
be  it  Christ  or  apostle,  council  or  consciousness  of 
the  Church,  to  make  such  affirmations  ?  Religion, 
Ave  are  told,  is  a  matter  of  the  heart  and  of  con- 
duct. As  for  Christianity,  it  is  the  moral  influence 
upon  men  of  the  impressive  personality  of  Jesus. 
The  intellectual  ideas  through  the  medium  of  which 
his  influence  has  acted  and  in  which  it  has  clothed 
itself  are  but  temporary  forms  of  thought,  natural 
to  the  several  epochs  in  which  they  have  originated 
but  not  fitted  to  continue.  In  fact  they  have  never 
been  an  essential  part  of  the  gospel.  They  have  no 
right  to  claim  permanent  authority.  For  the 
human  mind  cannot  know  God  adequately.  It  is 
shut  up  within  the  limits  of  the  finite.  It  can  only 
form  for  itself  more  or  less  imperfect  images  of 
divine  things.  These  have  for  their  age  religious 
value  as  instruments  to  be  used  for  a  while  by  the 
pious  heart  in  the  expression  of  its  sentiment  and 
as  a  guide  to  conduct.     But  religion  does  not  in 


158  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

reality  or  rightfully  have  an  intellectual  side ;  and 
all  doctrine  can  be  regarded  only  as  of  historical 
interest  and  relative  importance. 

It  should  be  remembered  also  that  this  conten- 
tion is  made  in  the  supposed  interest  of  religion 
itself.  Herein  lies  the  peculiarity  of  the  problem 
as  now  presented.  The  necessitjr  of  religion  is 
universally  admitted,  and  it  is  hoped  to  save  it  from 
the  assaults  of  philosoph}^  and  science  by  separating 
their  spheres.  Philosophy,  science,  and  historical 
criticism,  may  pursue  their  way,  it  is  said,  without 
hindrance  from  religion.  The  first  may  be  agnostic 
or  even  pantheistic ;  the  second  may  be  purely  nat- 
uralistic ;  the  third  may  resolve  the  Bible  and 
dogma  into  human  constructions.  But,  we  are  told, 
they  cannot  injure  religion,  which  has  nothing  to 
do  with  these  intellectual  processes.  It  will  still 
retain  its  original  power,  provided  it  confess  its 
limitations  and  content  itself  with  the  sphere  of 
pious  sentiment  toward  its  thought  of  God  and  of 
love  toward  man. 

Herein  I  say  lies  the  first  phase  of  the  intellectual 
problem  with  which  culture  confronts  Christianity. 
It  evidently  strikes  at  the  roots  of  the  question  of 
what  religion  is.  Can  we  admit  the  proposed 
solution  ?  The  theology  of  the  twentieth  century 
will  turn  upon  the  answer.  Now  I  maintain  that 
we  cannot  admit  it,  and,  in  brief,  for  two  reasons. 
The  one  is  because  it  is  impossible  to  eliminate  the 
intellectual  element  from  the  teaching  of  Christ 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  159 

and  his  apostles  without  reducing  them  to  the 
limitations  of  fallible  men.  They  have  given  us 
doctrines  about  God  and  his  relation  to  the  world, 
about  guilt  and  sin,  atonement  and  the  future, 
which  enter  into  the  very  fabric  of  their  instruction. 
These  cannot  be  denied  as  either  untrue  or  un- 
essential without  denying  the  infallibility  of  the 
founders  of  our  religion ;  and,  be  it  noted,  the 
difficulty  applies  and  the  principle  is  in  fact  to-day 
applied,  just  as  vigorously  and  just  as  logically  to 
Jesus  as  to  his  apostles.  The  other  reason  is  that 
the  attempt  to  separate  the  religious  and  the  intel- 
lectual sides  of  the  human  mind  is,  if  it  be  possible, 
suicidal.  The  mind  cannot  build  its  sentiment  on 
ideas  which  it  knows  to  be  untrue,  or  govern  con- 
duct by  beliefs  which  it  disbelieves.  It  cannot  be 
permanently  determined  by  what  it  affirms  to  be 
irrational.  If  divine  things  be  unknowable,  it  can- 
not continue  to  reverence  them  as  if  they  were 
known.  It  cannot  give  religious  value  to  ideas 
which  the  reason  declares  to  be  of  no  value.  Re- 
ligion is  either  rational  or  it  is  an  error.  It  cannot 
continue  to  sit  on  the  limb  of  a  tree  which  it  has 
sawed  off  from  the  trunk.  No !  The  intellectual 
side  of  religion  is  real.  It  has  a  right  and  a  duty 
to  furnish  an  interpretation  of  life  and  the  universe 
to  the  intelligence  of  man.  Dogma  has  a  place  in 
its  consciousness.  It  must  meet  the  culture  of  the 
new  age  not  by  shrinking  back  into  a  shell  while 
the  battle  between  truth  and  error  is  fought  by 


160  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

other  weapons,  but  rather,  as  in  the  centuries  past, 
by  entering  courageously  into  the  fray  and  main- 
taining the  truth  of  the  great  intellectual  ideas 
for  which  it  has  stood ;  by  making  them  clearer  in 
statement  and  more  convincing  in  argument ;  by 
asserting  the  rationality  and  the  truth  of  its 
affirmations  concerning  God,  and  man,  the  nature 
of  the  former  and  the  salvation  of  the  latter ;  and 
thus  interpreting  to  man's  intelligence  the  basis  of 
piety  and  of  duty. 

But,  if  there  be  an  intellectual  problem  before 
religion,  what  is  the  particular  form  which  it  has 
taken ;  what  is  really  the  fundamental  question 
which  lies  before  Christian  faith  at  the  opening  of 
the  new  century  ?  The  nineteenth  century  has  wit- 
nessed a  steady  convergence  of  discussion  toward 
the  basal  questions  which  lie  at  the  very  root  of  re- 
ligion. The  older  debates  were  occupied  with  the 
inquiry  whether  the  doctrines  of  historical  Chris- 
tianity are  supported  by  Scripture ;  and,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  most,  it  appeared  that  they  are.  Then  the 
debate  changed  into  an  inquiry  concerning  the  au- 
thority of  Scripture,  and  from  that,  still  more  deeply, 
into  the  question  of  the  seat  of  authority  in  re- 
ligion. Meanwhile  a  new  emphasis  has  been  placed 
upon  the  ethical  element  in  religion,  leading  not 
only  to  a  disparagement  of  dogma  but  to  a  reinter- 
pretation  by  many  thinkers  of  the  older  doctrines 
in  the  interest  of  their  ethical  content.  Then  the 
century  has  witnessed  the  rise  and  prevalence  of 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  161 

the  philosophy  of  evolution,  applied  first  to  the 
world  of  nature  and  then  to  the  history  of  man. 
We  should  not  doubt  that  in  these  movements  of 
thought  valuable  and  permanent  ideas  have  been 
discovered.  It  has  been  a  century  of  great  progress 
in  religious  thought.  Historical  criticism  has  illu- 
minated the  progress  of  revelation  in  Scripture. 
The  ethical  interpretation  of  dogma  has  delivered 
us  from  a  barren  scholasticism.  The  truth  in  evo- 
lution has  opened  to  us  the  historic  movement  of 
the  race.  The  conflict  with  error  has  brought  old 
truth  to  new  emphasis  and  new  truth  to  expression. 
I  am  simply  pointing  out  that  the  result  has  been 
to  bring  us  face  to  face  with  fundamental  problems 
and  that  the  one  now  most  pressing,  as  Christianity 
confronts  modern  culture,  is  that  of  the  definition 
and  the  demonstration  of  "the  supernatural"  in 
history.  Can  we  maintain  it?  How  shall  we 
define  it?  Is  God  transcendent  over  the  world 
and  superior  to  finite  forces ;  or  is  he  only  imma- 
nent in  them?  Is  "the  supernatural"  merely 
another  name  for  "providence"  or  does  it  mean 
that,  besides  God's  providential  guidance  of  the 
world  he  has  interfered  to  manifest  himself  im- 
mediately to  men  ?  This  question  underlies  all 
religion  and  theology  and  criticism.  Has  God 
given  an  immediate  revelation  of  his  mind  and 
will  ?  Was  the  advent  of  Jesus  a  real  incarnation 
of  the  divine  Son  ?  Is  the  human  soul  really  born 
again  by  an  immediate  exercise  of  divine  power  ? 
11 


162  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Or  is  the  Bible  the  providentially  guided  driftwood 
of  Hebrew  literature ;  and  the  person  of  Christ 
either  an  insoluble  enigma  or  purely  human ;  and 
is  Christian  experience  simply  the  result  of  the 
moral  influence  of  the  Kabbi  of  Nazareth?  This 
is  beyond  doubt  the  intellectual  problem  to  which 
the  Christianity  of  the  twentieth  century  must  give 
its  answer ;  and  because  it  underlies  all  questions 
of  criticism  and  theology,  it  behooves  us  to  face  it 
calmly  and  honestly,  and  to  weigh  the  importance 
of  minor  questions  in  view  of  their  relation  to  it. 
I  am  here  to  state,  rather  than  to  argue,  the  prob- 
lems of  the  new  century.  But  I  may  be  permitted 
to  point  out  that  the  contribution  which  Keformed 
theology  has  to  make  in  the  solution  of  this  prob- 
lem lies  in  the  fearless  maintenance  of  its  doctrine 
of  God.  That  doctrine  is  the  center  of  the  Ke- 
formed system.  It  is,  we  believe,  the  completest 
statement  of  the  biblical  revelation.  The  Bible  is 
emphatically  the  revelation  of  God  as  well  as  a 
revelation  from  God.  It  is  the  unveiling  of  the 
mighty  Jehovah  culminating  in  the  person  and 
teaching  of  Jesus.  "No  man  hath  seen  God  at 
any  time;  the  only  begotten  Son,  who  is  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  declared  him."  Cal- 
vinism has  taken  that  point  of  view.  God  is  the 
ultimate  fact,  and  a  complete  system  of  religious 
teaching  must  proceed  from  him  as  the  fundamental 
truth.  So  Calvinism  has  organized  its  system 
around  the  revealed  doctrine  of  God.     It  has  rec- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  163 

ognized  in  him  not  only  the  absolute  Author  of  the 
world  but  its  sovereign  Ruler,  in  accordance  with 
the  purposes  and  government  of  whom  all  things 
proceed.  It  has  not  failed  to  recognize  his  moral 
attributes  but  it  has  first  recognized  his  sovereignty, 
self-sufficiency,  independence,  and  authority.  It  has 
found  in  his  will  the  only  safe  resting  place  in  the 
effort  to  explain  the  reason  of  things.  It  does  not 
fail  to  perceive  his  immanence  in  nature  and  life ; 
but  it  posits  first  his  transcendence.  It  may  be 
that  it  has  not  sufficiently  emphasized  his  love 
toward  the  human  race,  though  in  its  declaration 
of  his  infinite  grace,  it  has  embodied  most  pro- 
foundly the  reality  of  that  love.  But  it  has  com- 
pletely expressed  the  truth  of  his  relation  to  the 
world, — in  accordance  with  his  self-revelation  in 
Christ, — so  that  with  this  conception  of  God  fully 
maintained  the  supernatural  in  history  is  made  to 
rest  on  an  indestructible  basis.  So  long  as  we  hold 
to  this  idea  of  God  in  its  integrity,  the  citadel  of 
supernatural  religion  is  safe.  To  defend  this  basal 
truth  would  seem  to  be  our  particular  glory  in  the 
intellectual  battle  concerning  religion  which  is 
closing  in  upon  us.  We  shall  not  help  to  solve 
this  problem  of  the  twentieth  century  if  in  any 
degree  we  abate  our  testimony  to  the  reality  of  that 
living  God,  who  "  hath  all  life,  glory,  goodness, 
blessedness  in  and  of  himself,  is  alone  in  and  unto 
himself  all-sufficient,  not  standing  in  need  of  any 
creatures  which  he  hath  made,     .     .     .     but  only 


164  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

manifesting  his  own  glory  in,  by,  unto  and  upon 
them ;  is  the  alone  fountain  of  all  being,  of  whom, 
through  whom  and  to  whom  are  all  things,  and 
hath  most  sovereign  dominion  over  them,  to  do  by 
them,  for  them  and  upon  them,  whatsoever  himself 
pleaseth."  This  doctrine  is  the  permanent  safe- 
guard of  supernatural  Christianity.  It  is  the  only 
breakwater  within  which  supernaturalism  can  live 
in  security.  It  answers  all  objections  to  revelation, 
miracles,  the  Incarnation  and  regeneration.  It  is, 
I  affirm,  our  special  task  to  meet  on  this  basis  the 
intellectual  doubt  of  the  coming  century. 

2.  Turning  to  another  direction,  the  Christian 
Church  is  face  to  face  with  a  social  jjroblem.  We 
are  compelled  to  ask  anew  what  is  the  relation  of 
Christianity  to  the  social  progress  of  mankind? 
How  can  it  best  make  its  contribution  in  this  sphere 
to  the  life  of  the  world ;  and  especially  how  can 
organized  Christianity,  or  the  Church,  fulfill  its 
mission  in  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  to  society  ? 

It  is  true  that  this  problem  has  always  been  pres- 
ent, but  it  is  now  felt  as  never  before;  and  the 
challenge  has  been  given  in  no  uncertain  tones  for 
the  Church  to  prove  itself  the  Saviour  of  society. 
This  social  problem  has  in  fact  become  the  most 
pressing  one  of  the  modern  world.  Humanity  as  a 
whole  has  become  conscious  of  its  rights  and  of  its 
wrongs.  The  individualism  which  characterized 
the  rising  democracy  of  a  century  ago  has  in  great 
measure  been  replaced  by  the  social  consciousness  ; 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  165 

that  is  to  say,  by  the  idea  that  every  factor,  be  it 
the  individual  or  be  it  an  institution,  is  under  obli- 
gation to  contribute  to  the  well-being  of  the  social 
organism,  so  that  all  may  share  in  the  benefit.  Ee- 
construction  of  these  relations  in  the  political, 
economic  and  industrial  spheres  is  certainly  going 
on  with  great  rapidity.  The  movement  is  chang- 
ing the  face  of  society  and,  with  many  blunders,  yet 
on  the  whole  with  steady  progress,  is  lifting  it  to  a 
higher  plane  and  to  a  fairer  recognition  of  the 
rights  and  duties  of  man  to  man.  In  this  condition 
of  affairs,  the  Church  cannot  but  have  the  liveliest 
interest.  She  cannot  help  inquiring  what  phase  of 
duty  and  opportunity  the  situation  brings  before 
her. 

There  are  also  certain  concrete  facts  which  call 
for  the  most  serious  consideration  of  Christian  men. 
It  is  sad  to  note  the  alienation  of  many  from  the 
Church,  on  the  ground  that  she  is  not  in  hearty 
sympathy  with  humanity  in  its  struggle  for  social 
betterment.  We  are  told  that  she  would  better 
give  heed  to  the  present  needs  of  men  than  confine 
her  attention  to  their  future  life ;  that  she  is  too 
often  on  the  side  of  the  rich  and  strong  instead  of 
the  poor  and  oppressed ;  that  she  is  out  of  touch 
with  the  life  of  the  common  people.  The  social 
restlessness  of  the  age  has  also  produced  an  antipa- 
thy to  all  authority,  and  hence  to  the  authority  of 
religion  and  to  the  grounds  on  which  it  claims  to 
rest.     There  is  further  a  widespread  tendency  to 


1G6  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

substitute  social  improvement  on  earth  for  the 
salvation  of  the  souls  of  men,  sociology  for  theol- 
ogy ;  the  culture  of  the  physical  and  intellectual 
life  for  the  spiritual.  These  facts  constitute  a 
problem  with  which  we  have  to  deal.  At  the  same 
time  never  has  Christ  been  so  loudly  praised ;  never 
has  the  necessity  of  some  religion  been  so  widely 
acknowledged.  What  shall  we  do  in  view  of  these 
serious  questions  which  we  cannot  escape  ? 

So  far  as  Christianity  itself  is  concerned,  there 
ought  to  be  no  question  from  her  history  that  she 
is  a  mighty  force  for  social  progress.  In  every  age 
and  land  she  has  wrought  for  freedom  and  right- 
eousness, for  the  physical  and  intellectual,  the  polit- 
ical and  industrial  improvement  of  life,  as  well  as 
for  the  salvation  of  souls.  She  has  entered  into  the 
social  organism  like  the  leaven  into  the  meal.  The 
process  has  been  slow  and  long,  with  much  to  over- 
come, both  in  her  adherents  and  in  her  foes.  But 
she  changed  the  civilization  of  the  ancient  world 
and  made  the  new.  She  has  ever  acted  however  by 
the  silent  creation  of  public  sentiment ;  by  the 
awakening  of  leaders  of  progress  to  the  needs  of 
men  and  giving  them  courage  to  proclaim  their 
ideas ;  by  the  quiet  pervasion  of  the  organism  with 
more  of  her  spirit.  She  will  continue  to  do  the 
same.  In  the  words  of  Dr.  Bruce,  "Christianity 
has  merely  begun  its  workings  in  the  world."  Yet 
if  the  operations  of  this  mighty  leaven  have  been 
already  so   vast  as  histoid   proves  them  to   have 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  167 

been,  we  may  be  sure  that  she  will  yet  more 
effectually  make  her  beneficent  influence  felt  in  the 
solving  of  the  social  problems  of  the  new  age. 

The  serious  question  however  is,  what  should  the 
organized  Protestant  Churches  do  in  the  situation 
which  immediately  confronts  them  ?  I  venture  to 
state  a  few  guiding  principles. 

They  must  not  abandon  the  effort  to  reach  society 
through  the  individual.  They  must  not  aim  to 
operate  through  legislation  so  much  as  through  the 
creation  of  opinion.  They  must  not  forget  that  the 
transformation  of  individual  character  through  the 
power  of  the  gospel  has  been  and  alone  can  be  the 
abiding  secret  of  the  transformation  of  the  whole 
physical  and  social  life  of  man.  No  dream  of  so- 
cial organization  must  lead  them  away  from  the 
fundamental  work  of  saving  the  body  by  first  sav- 
ing the  soul,  of  saving  society  by  first  saving  the 
individual. 

But  on  the  other  hand  they  must  cultivate  more 
sympathy  with  the  present  needs  of  men.  They 
must  take  pains  to  see  that  the  charge  of  selfishness 
and  exclusiveness  is  not  true.  They  must  correct 
not  a  few  abuses  which  have  crept  into  their  prac- 
tical operations. 

To  this  end  they  must  multiply  agencies  of  every 
kind  in  order  to  minister  to  men.  They  must  ex- 
press in  practical  forms  the  adaptation  of  their 
message  to  every  class  and  to  every  need.  They 
are  doing  this,  but  they  must  do  it  more  intensely 


168  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

and  abundantly.  And  then  their  preaching  must 
be  a  faithful  application  of  duty  to  every  man, 
whether  rich  or  poor,  in  straight,  plain  language ; 
in  the  tongue  of  the  unlearned ;  the  pressing  not 
only  the  salvation  which  is  in  Christ  on  the  accept- 
ance of  all,  but  the  duties  in  Christ  toward  God 
and  men  on  the  consciences  of  all.  This,  too,  the 
Church  is  doing,  thank  God,  as  never  before.  I 
am  not  disposed  to  look  on  the  social  problem  as 
wholly  dark.  It  is  being,  I  am  persuaded,  slowly 
and  surely  solved.  It  presents  itself  in  its  most 
acute  form  in  our  large  cities.  We  only  need  to 
feel  it.  We  must  believe  that  the  gospel  of  Christ 
contains  its  solution, — that  it  has  in  it  the  promise 
and  power  of  every  form  of  life.  We  must  carry 
it,  with  all  its  attendant  benefits  to  soul  and  body, 
to  every  class ;  and  by  the  persistent  love  of  men 
which  we  have  learned  of  Jesus  set  the  leaven  free 
to  work  in  the  world  which  unquestionably  feels 
the  need  of  it. 

3.  Still  again;  within  the  circle  of  organized 
Christianity,  there  is  the  urgent  problem  of  cooper- 
ation, if  not  of  union,  among  the  several  branches 
of  the  Evangelical  Church. 

The  longing  for  some  measure  at  least  of  the  re- 
union of  Christendom  is  very  strong  and  wide- 
spread. It  has  become  one  of  the  movements  of 
the  age.  Many  of  the  causes  of  division  among 
the  Churches  belong  to  the  past  and  are  felt  to  be 
no  longer  in  force.     Others  are  now  seen  to  have 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  169 

been  from  the  beginning  insufficient  and  born  of 
narrow  views  of  truth  and  duty.  There  is  evident 
a  needless  waste  of  power  in  the  work  of  taking 
the  gospel  to  the  world.  Often  there  exists  un- 
happy rivalry.  The  multitudes  in  even  our  own 
land  who  need  the  ministration  of  the  Church  are 
so  many  that  distribution  of  service  is  loudly  called 
for ;  while  in  the  vaster  multitudes  of  the  heathen 
world  there  is  still  larger  room  for  division  of  func- 
tion and  union  of  effort.  The  inquiry  comes  from 
many  lips,  Shall  not  the  new  century  witness  some 
steps  at  least  toward  the  outward  expression  of 
that  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  Christ  which  has  been 
making  itself  more  and  more  deeply  felt  in  the 
breasts  of  millions  of  his  followers  ? 

There  is  certainly  much  to  be  said  in  the 
consideration  of  this  problem  and  on  both  sides 
of  it. 

There  would  certainly  seem  to  be  every  reason 
for  the  gradual  reunion  of  the  various  branches  of 
the  leading  types  of  Protestant  Christianity.  The 
subdivisions  at  least  may  be  merged  into  the  divi- 
sions in  their  respective  countries.  Why  should  not 
all  Presbyterians  in  this  land  come  into  actual 
union ;  and  all  Methodists ;  and  all  Lutherans  ? 
May  we  not  with  reason  hope  that  this  century  will 
witness  such  a  measure  of  reunion  ? 

And  there  is  certainly  a  call  for  a  fairer  and 
broader  application  of  the  principle  of  cooperation 
in  Christian  work  at  home  and  abroad,  even  where 


170  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

there  may  not  be  organic  union.  Why  should  we 
not  have  "  spheres  of  influence  "  in  Church  activity ; 
and  this  not  in  the  interest  of  selfish  advancement, 
but  for  the  glory  of  the  common  Lord  ? 

And  of  course  there  must  be  the  full  recognition 
of  the  Christian  character  of  all  other  Churches  who 
worship  the  divine  Christ  and  proclaim  him  as  the 
Saviour  of  mankind. 

Yet  there  exist  certain  obvious  limitations  to  the 
application  of  these  aims  and  hopes.     Union  may 
never  be  consummated  at   the   expense   of  essen- 
tial  truth.     The    problem   is  how  much  truth  is 
essential;    and    that    is    just   the   question   which 
the     century    will    work    out.      But    union    will 
be  worth   nothing,  if  it  be  not  the  genuine   ex- 
pression of  substantial  accord  in  belief  and  life. 
Therefore  we  must  move  slowly.     The  practical 
question   will   be  how  and  when  to   act.     Every 
honest  controversy  will  help  to  settle  the  question. 
Every  performance  also  of  our  duty  to  the  world 
will  aid  in  a  like  way.     As  we  all  grow  nearer  to 
Christ,  we  shall  grow  nearer  to  one  another.     We 
may  look  to  the  future  with  the  expectation  that 
the  common  consciousness  of  Christendom  will  be- 
come more  filled  with  his  truth  and  spirit,  and  will 
therefore  more  freely  and  fully  combine  into  one- 
ness of  form.     We  hail  the  prospect !     It  will  fulfill 
the  apostle's  prediction  and  the  Saviour's  prayer. 
We  may  cherish  the  hope  that  the  new  century 
will  see  some  advance  toward  the  ideal  when  we 


TWENTIETH  CENTUM Y  ADDRESSES  171 

shall  be  outwardly  as   well  as  inwardly  one  in 
Christ  Jesus. 

4.  In  the  last  place,  yet  on  the  practical  side 
perhaps  most  pressing  of  all,  there  confronts  the 
Church  the  problem  of  missions, — of  the  world's 
evangelization.  I  will  do  no  more  than  mention  it, 
because  you  are  to  be  addressed  on  this  subject  by 
one  who  has  made  it  his  specialty.  It  is  enough 
for  me  to  say  that  the  problem  is  not  whether  we 
shall  be  a  missionary  Church,  nor  how  missions 
should  be  conducted ;  but  how  can  the  Church  be 
aroused  to  a  realization  of  the  opportunity,  the  im- 
mensity, and  the  solemn  duty,  of  the  cause.  The 
success  already  won  by  the  blessing  of  God,  has 
only  made  the  task  appear  the  more  compli- 
cated. Its  immensity  appears  appalling.  The  re- 
vivals of  heathenism  make  it  more  difficult.  The 
evils  of  civilization,  which  often  accompany  Chris- 
tianity, hinder  the  advance  of  the  latter.  Political 
complications  are  inevitable  and  full  of  peril.  But 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  is 
leading  his  militant  hosts,  and  that  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  will  become  his.  The  chief  problem,  I 
say,  is  to  arouse  the  Churches  to  the  conviction  of 
duty  and  to  an  adequate  expenditure  of  men  and 
money.  We  have  not  yet  taken  the  work  up  with 
the  zeal  and  devotion  for  which  it  calls.  Enthusi- 
asm must  give  way  to  permanent  conviction ;  spas- 
modic efforts  to  systematic  consecration.  The 
whole  Church  and  every  individual  must  take  part 


172  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

in  the  task.  What  may  we  not  expect  in  the  next 
century,  if  the  ratio  of  advance  attained  in  the  past 
one  be  continued  ?  God  help  us  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem ;  to  keep  the  great  commission  in  the  front ; — 
and  to  hasten  the  conquest  of  the  world  by  the 
only  true  religion  in  the  name  of  the  only  Saviour 
of  mankind. 

Such  appear  to  be  the  chief  classes  of  problems 
with  which  we  are  confronted  at  the  opening  of 
the  new  century, — the  intellectual,  the  social,  the 
ecclesiastical  and  the  missionary.  Let  us  meet 
them  with  calm  faith  and  confident  hope.  They 
are  not  more  serious  than  those  which  the  past  has 
faced.  They  will  be  solved  just  in  proportion  as 
the  Church  imbibes  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  and  fills 
herself  with  the  Master's  mind.  They  will  be  met 
successfully  less  by  human  wisdom  than  by  the  wis- 
dom of  God  working  through  us ;  and  this  will  follow 
if  the  Church  brings  every  thought  into  captivity 
unto  the  obedience  of  Christ.  For  he  is  the  solvent 
of  all  problems.  He  is  the  wisdom  and  the  power  of 
God.  The  brightest  and  most  inspiring  of  all  facts 
in  the  present  situation  is  that  Christ  is  being  more 
glorified,  more  studied,  better  understood,  than  ever 
before.  Nearer  to  him  are  all  the  Churches  ad- 
vancing ;  and  as  he  fills  our  minds  and  lives,  the 
day  will  be  hastened  when  at  his  feet  every  knee 
shall  bow  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  that  he  is 
Lord.  When  his  reign  is  perfected  in  us,  the  prob- 
lems of  all  the  centuries  will  be  solved.     The  intel- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  173 

lect  and  the  social  life  of  man  will  embody  his 
truth  and  law;  the  Church  and  the  world  aiike 
will  own  his  sway.  Believing  in  him  we  may  face 
the  future  without  a  doubt ;  for  as  surely  as  God  is 
true  will  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the 
kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 


THE  SPEEDY  BRINGING  OF  THE 
WORLD  TO  CHRIST 


BY 

MR.  ROBERT  E.  SPEER 


THE  SPEEDY  BRINGING  OF  THE  WORLD 
TO  CHRIST 


BY 

MR.  ROBERT  E.  SPEER 


The  problem  of  the  salvation  of  the  world  is  a 
problem  in  the  will  of  God.  It  is  the  will  of  God 
that  it  should  not  remain  so,  but  that  two  other 
wills  should  be  introduced  to  joint  responsibility  and 
privilege ; — the  will  of  the  Church,  to  which  the 
gospel  has  already  come,  and  the  will  of  the  world, 
to  which  the  gospel  is  yet  to  go.  Midway  between 
the  will  of  the  loving  God  desiring  to  save  the 
world,  and  the  will  of  the  world  needing  to  be 
saved,  stand  the  men  of  the  Church  who  hold  in 
trust  the  gospel  of  God  given  for  the  salvation  of 
the  world.  The  agency  at  the  disposal  of  these  men 
in  swaying  the  will  of  God  is  prayer.  The  agency 
at  their  disposal  in  molding  the  will  of  the  world 
is  the  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  Powerful  as  is 
the  ministry  of  prayer  in  this  and  in  all  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Church  when  rightly  used,  it  is  both  a 
futility  and  a  hypocrisy  unless  coupled  with  an 
effort    proportionate    to    the    love    of    God,    the 

12  177 


178  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Church's  duty,  and  the  world's  need,  to  take  to 
the  world  which  is  in  ignorance  of  the  gospel,  the 
knowledge  of  its  only  hope  and  life.  For  us, 
accordingly,  the  problem  of  the  salvation  of  the 
world  reduces  itself  to  the  problem  of  the  prayerful 
effort  speedily  to  take  Jesus  Christ  to  the  world. 

But  can  we  take  him  speedily  ?  It  might  be 
answered  that  the  question  is  an  irrelevant  one.  A 
Church  that  has  always  refused  to  condition  re- 
sponsibility for  action  upon  ability  to  act  when 
speaking  to  the  unregenerate  has  no  right  to  raise 
questions  of  difficulty  when  confronted  with  her 
own  enterprises  of  duty.  It  is  conceivable  that 
through  long  disobedience  and  neglect,  the  atrophy 
of  her  spiritual  powers  and  the  enervation  due  to 
her  selfishness,  the  Church  might  have  lost  the 
fresh  vigor  and  the  fervent  faith  necessary  for  the 
speedy  evangelization  of  the  world  ;  but  incapacities 
self-created  cannot  constitute  exemptions  from  duty. 
No  difficulty  that  the  most  reluctant  Christian  can 
invent  can  suffice  to  nullify  for  us  the  ever-living 
and  imperative  obligation  to  make  Jesus  Christ 
known  to  all  mankind. 

But  frankly,  and  confronting  the  problem  of  the 
world's  evangelization,  there  is  not  one  of  us  who 
dare  allege  that  it  is  an  impossible  duty.  We  are 
able  to  make  Jesus  Christ  known  to  the  world  at 
once,  so  far  as  the  world  is  concerned.  It  is  open 
now  to  the  gospel  as  it  never  has  been  before.  A 
few  hundred  years  ago  the  world  paused  on  the 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  179 

seacoast    of  Africa,  and  its  maps  of   the  interior 
revealed  its  absolute  ignorance  of  the  continent. 
The  Mohammedan  world,  bigoted  and  not  under- 
stood, was  without  a  single  Christian  missionary. 
The  East  India  Company  pursued  the  consistent 
policy  of  excluding  missionaries  from  its  territories 
in  India,  and   sought   to  include  all  India  in  its 
territories.     The  cannon  of  the  Opium  "War  had  not 
yet  brought  China  the  blessings  of  the  gospel,  and 
the  curse  of  the  traffic  which  gave  its  name  of 
infamy  to  the  war.     The  edicts  which  prohibited 
Christian  faith  still  stood  by  the  roadsides  in  Japan, 
while  the  chains  of  Home's  political  sovereignty 
still  bound  without  exception  the  Latin  states  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere.     The  world  was  a  sealed 
world ;  as  sealed  against  the  gospel  as  was  the  heart 
of  the  Church  against  the  purpose  to  proclaim  it. 
Now,  we  stand  before  a  world  with  all  its  gates 
ajar.    We   have  no  right  to  say   of    any  single 
country  longer  that  it  is  barred  against  the  gospel. 
If  we  say  this  still  of  Afghanistan  and  Tibet  or  of 
any  other  land,  it  may  be  truly  answered  that  the 
Church  has  no  right  to  call  any  door  closed  which 
she  has  had  neither  faith  nor  courage  to  attempt  to 
open  and  pass  through. 

To  our  ability  to  enter  the  whole  world  must  be 
added  now  our  knowledge  of  the  physical  con- 
ditions under  which  the  mission  work  must  be 
done,  our  acquaintance  with  the  opinions  and 
superstitions  of  its  people,  our  experiences  of  the 


180  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

real  character  of  the  missionary  problem,  of  the 
exact  difficulties  it  must  meet,  and  the  precise  work 
it  has  to  do ;  while  the  genius  of  a  hundred  years  of 
the  most  fertile  intellectual  activity  of  the  race  has 
spent  itself  in  devising  means  and  facilities  for  the 
use  of  the  Church  in  the  day  when  she  shall  awake 
to  perceive  the  true  glory  of  her  mission  in  the 
world. 

Not  alone  in  taking  Jesus  Christ  to  the  world  at 
once  are  there  no  insuperable  hindrances,  so  far  as 
the  world  is  concerned,  but  there  is  nothing  in  the 
equipment  of  the  Church  to  forbid.  It  was  re- 
ported at  the  Ecumenical  Conference  that  there  are 
now  five  hundred  and  thirty-seven  missionary  so- 
cieties, representing  hundreds  of  branches  of  the 
Christian  Church.  It  is  a  pathetic  commentary 
upon  the  prayer  of  our  Lord,  "  That  they  may  be 
one,  even  as  we  are  one ;  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me, 
that  they  may  be  perfected  into  one ;  that  the  world 
may  know  that  thou  didst  send  me,  and  lovedst 
them,  even  as  thou  lovedst  me,"  but  it  is  evidence 
that  the  Church  possesses  all  the  necessary  mis- 
sionary agencies.  She  has  also  sufficient  agents. 
It  was  reported  at  the  Ecumenical  Conference  that 
these  missionary  societies  have  already  at  work 
upon  the  foreign  field,  fifteen  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  sixty  missionaries.  It  is  declared  also 
that  in  this  generation  there  will  go  out  from  our 
higher  institutions  of  learning  two  million  young 
men    and   women.     A    fraction   of    this   immense 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  181 

multitude  added  to  the  force  upon  the  field 
and  properly  supported  by  an  army  of  native 
agents,  would  suffice  to  make  Jesus  Christ  known  to 
every  creature  before  the  younger  generation  repre- 
sented here  this  afternoon  has  passed  away.  And  the 
Church  has  ample  means.  According  to  the  census 
of  1890,  the  wealth  of  this  land  was  $65,037,091,197. 
The  rate  of  increase  which  prevailed  in  the  decade 
ending  with  1890  would  make  our  wealth  now 
$96,905,265,873,  an  increase  of  $31,868,174,676  in 
ten  years.  It  is  less  than  a  reasonable  estimate  to 
say  that  one-thirtieth  of  the  population  of  this 
country  is  in  direct  affiliation  with  our  Church.  It 
is  notorious  that  we  possess  a  disproportionate  share 
of  the  wealth  of  this  land.  But  assuming  only  that 
one-thirtieth  of  the  wealth  of  this  country  is  in 
Presbyterian  hands,  the  census  of  1900  would  in- 
dicate that  we  are  worth  as  a  Church,  approxi- 
mately $3,230,175,529  and  that  we  have  added 
to  our  wealth  over  and  above  all  our  expenses 
of  living,  all  that  we  have  lavished  on  luxury, 
and  all  that  we  have  given,  away,  approximately 
$106,227,248  each  year  since  the  census  of  1890. 
We  have  averaged  during  these  same  years,  an 
annual  contribution  toward  the  evangelization  of 
the  heathen  world  of  $901,262,  that  is,  less  than 
one  one-hundredth  of  the  annual  increase  of  the 
wealth  of  our  Church,  and  less  than  one  three- 
thousandth  of  the  Church's  total  wealth.  In  the 
Old  Dispensation  God  asked  a  tithe  and  in  the  ISTew 


182  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

demanded  the  whole  of  our  life  and  possession  as 
his  own,  and  now  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
whole  unchristian  world  our  Church  gives  less 
than  a  tithe  of  a  tithe,  not  of  its  income,  but  of  what 
it  saves  out  of  its  income. 

Not  alone  has  the  Church  the  agencies,  the  agents 
and  the  means,  she  has  also  available  omnipotent  re- 
sources. The  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  using  her 
present  equipment,  would  carry  at  once  on  the  lips  of 
a  Church  made  up  of  truly  earnest  men,  the  gospel  of 
the  world's  Redeemer  to  all  the  multitudes  for  whom 
he  died.  "  If  we  could  bring  back  the  Church  of 
Pentecost  to  earth,"  said  Bishop  Thoburn,  "or, 
rather,  if  we  could  receive  anew  universally  the 
spirit  of  that  model  Church  of  all  ages,  the  idea  of 
evangelizing  the  world  in  a  single  generation  would 
no  longer  appear  visionary ;  but  on  the  other  hand 
it  would  seem  so  reasonable,  so  practicable,  and  the 
duty  to  perform  it  so  imperative,  that  every  one 
would  begin  to  wonder  why  any  intelligent  Chris- 
tians had  ever  doubted  its  possibility,  or  been  con- 
tent to  let  weary  years  go  by  without  a  vast  uni- 
versal movement  throughout  all  the  Churches  of 
Christendom  at  once  to  go  forward  and  complete 
the  task."  And  what  the  Church  could  do  if  pos- 
sessed once  more  by  the  spirit  of  the  living  God, 
she  ought  to  do.  "  It  is  the  duty  of  Christians,"  as 
Dr.  Joel  Parker  declared,  "  to  evangelize  the  whole 
world  immediately.  The  present  generation  is 
competent  under  God  to  achieve  the  work.     There 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  183 

are  means  enough  in  the  power  of  the  Church  to  do 
it.  There  is  money  that  can  be  counted  in  millions 
that  can  be  spared  without  producing  any  serious 
want.  There  are  men  enough  for  the  missionary 
work."  Whatever  may  have  been  the  Church's 
position  in  any  earlier  day,  her  position  now  is  one 
of  perfect  competence  to  obey  literally  the  last 
command  of  Jesus  Christ.  As  one  of  our  own  mis- 
sionaries, Dr.  Mateer,  a  sober  man,  has  said :  "  Once 
the  world  seemed  boundless  and  the  Church  was  poor 
and  persecuted.  No  wonder  the  work  of  evangeliz- 
ing the  world  within  a  reasonable  time  seemed 
hopeless.  Now  steam  and  electricity  have  brought 
the  world  together.  The  Church  of  God  is  in  the 
ascendant.  She  has  well  within  her  control  the 
power,  the  wealth,  and  the  learning  of  the  world. 
She  is  like  a  strong  and  well-appointed  army  in  the 
presence  of  the  foe.  The  only  thing  she  needs  is 
the  spirit  of  her  Leader  and  a  willingness  to  obey 
his  summons  to  go  forward.  The  victory  may  not 
be  easy  but  it  is  sure."  If  this  were  a  human 
venture  men  would  not  be  wasting  their  time  in  the 
discussion  of  its  practicability.  Men  and  money  in 
unstinted  measure  would  be  poured  out  if  this  were 
a  war  for  the  acquisition  of  territory,  for  the  sub- 
jugation of  nations,  for  the  suppression  of  disorder. 
Difficulties  arise  before  our  own  country  in  the 
Philippines,  a  small  fraction  of  whose  eight  million 
people  are  in  insurrection  against  authority  legiti- 
mately established    over  them.     We  are  already 


184  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

maintaining  in  the  Philippines  an  army  of  50,000 
men,  three  times  the  number  of  all  the  missionaries 
sent  out  by  the  whole  Protestant  Church  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  Two  small  states  re- 
sist the  power  of  the  British  Government  and,  we 
must  believe,  the  movement  of  destiny  in  South 
Africa,  and  Great  Britain  maintains  there  an  army 
of  200,000  men,  a  force  four  times  as  great  as 
would  be  required  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
world,  maintained  at  an  expenditure  that  would 
suffice  to  support  a  missionary  enterprise  as  glorious 
as  the  slaughter  of  men  who  believe  they  are  fight- 
ing for  their  liberties  is  sad.  The  Standard  Oil 
Company  sends  its  flickering  lights  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  Asia,  and  laughs  at  the  diffi- 
culties that  must  be  overcome.  There  will  be  thou- 
sands of  households  lighted  by  our  oil  to-night  in  the 
villages  of  Asia  where  the  true  Light  has  never 
shined. 

My  friends,  if  we  were  in  earnest  about  it,  if  we 
truly  believed  that  it  was  a  great  thing  to  do,  a 
thing  that  must  be  done,  if  Christ  were  enough  to 
each  one  of  us  to  make  us  think  it  worth  while  to 
put  him  in  the  reach  of  our  fellow-men,  we  could 
evangelize  the  world  speedily  with  neither  difficulty 
nor  sacrifice  worthy  of  the  name. 

But  what  we  do  we  mean  by  "  speedily."  How 
speedily  must  Jesus  Christ  be  made  known  to 
the  world  ?  The  missionaries  in  China,  sensible 
men,  misled   by  no  hallucination  and  pursuing  no 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  185 

fanciful  illusion,  gave  us  their  reply  twenty-five 
years  ago :  "  We  want  China  emancipated  from  the 
thraldom  of  sin  in  this  generation.  It  is  possible. 
Our  Lord  has  said,  '  According  to  your  faith  be  it 
unto  you.'  The  Church  of  God  can  do  it,  if  she  be 
only  faithful  to  her  great  commission,  .  .  . 
Standing  on  the  borders  of  this  vast  empire,  we, 
therefore,  one  hundred  and  twenty  missionaries, 
from  almost  every  evangelical  religious  denomina- 
tion in  Europe  and  America,  assembled  in  General 
Conference  at  Shanghai,  and  representing  the 
whole  body  of  Protestant  missionaries  in  China — 
feeling  our  utter  insufficiency  for  the  great  work  so 
rapidly  expanding,  do  most  earnestly  plead,  with 
one  voice,  calling  upon  the  whole  Church  of  God 
for  more  laborers.  And  we  will  as  earnestly  and 
unitedly  plead  at  the  Throne  of  Grace  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  may  move  the  hearts  of  all  to  whom 
this  appeal  comes,  to  cry,  '  Lord,  what  wilt  thou 
have  me  to  do?'  And  may  this  spirit  be  com- 
municated from  heart  to  heart,  from  church  to 
church,  from  continent  to  continent,  until  the 
whole  Christian  world  shall  be  aroused,  and  every 
soldier  of  the  cross  shall  come  to  the  help  of  the 
Lord  against  the  mighty."  What  evangelization 
can  there  be  that  is  not  immediate  ?  If  I  were  a 
heathen  man,  the  evangelization  that  did  not  reach 
me  in  my  lifetime  would  be  no  evangelization  at 
all.  And  the  world  in  which  we  as  Christians  are 
to  preach  the  gospel  is  this  present  world,  with  its 


186  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

now  living  multitudes  of  men  and  women  for  whom 
Jesus  Christ  died.  As  the  missionaries  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands  declared  in  their  appeal  more 
than  two  generations  ago,  "  It  is  not  possible  for 
the  coming  generation  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
the  present,  whether  it  respects  their  repentance, 
faith,  or  works ;  and  to  commit  to  them  our  share 
of  preaching  Christ  crucified  to  the  heathen  is  like 
committing  to  them  the  love  due  from  us  to  God 
and  our  neighbor.  The  Lord  will  require  of  us 
that  which  is  committed  to  us." 

Yet  there  will  creep  about  in  our  hearts,  lurking 
where  the  light  cannot  reach,  the  unchristian 
doubt :  "  Is  it  necessary  for  us  to  concern  ourselves 
with  this  thing  ?  Suppose  we  can  evangelize  the 
world,  why  should  we  ?  In  the  providential  order- 
ing of  history,  eighteen  hundred  years  have  passed 
by  and  the  thing  has  not  been  done.  What  is  there 
to  show  that  a  duty  that  lay  dormant  for  these 
centuries  by  the  will  of  God,  is  acute  and  pressing 
now?"  One  hundred  years  ago  men  talked  this 
way.  "Let  us  pray  that  Christ's  kingdom  may 
come,"  said  Alexander  Carlyle,  opposing  the  es- 
tablishment of  foreign  missions  in  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  1796,  "  as 
we  are  sure  it  shall  come  in  the  course  of  provi- 
dence." That  was  the  tone  of  that  day.  That 
view  is  intelligible  on  the  lips  of  unconverted  men 
whether  in  or  out  of  the  Church,  but  it  is  not  intelli- 
gible on  the  lips  of  Christians.     If  the  world  has  no 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  187 

need  of  Christ,  we  have  no  need  of  him.  If  the 
evangelization  of  China  must  be  left  to  providence 
unaided  by  the  Church,  the  evangelization  of  America 
and  the  support  of  Christian  ministers  here  may  be 
left  to  the  same  kindly  unaided  beneficence.  What- 
ever Christ  is  to  me  he  can  be  to  every  man  in  this 
world.  If  I  cannot  live  without  him,  no  other  man 
can  live  without  him.  As  he  only  has  healed  our 
lives,  comforted  our  hearts,  broken  the  chains  of 
our  sins,  and  given  us  assured  hope  of  what  lies  be- 
yond, he  only  can  do  these  things  for  all  mankind. 
And  not  only  does  the  world  need  him  now,  but 
we  need  to  give  him  now  to  the  world.  The  world 
will  not  more  surely  die  without  him,  than  we  will 
die  with  him  if  we  refuse  to  obey  him,  and  look 
with  careless,  Christless  hearts  upon  the  world  that 
waits  for  him.  The  Lambeth  Conference  touched 
the  profound  Christian  truth  when  it  declared, 
"  The  fulfillment  of  our  Lord's  great  commission  to 
evangelize  all  nations  is  a  necessary  and  constant 
element  in  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church  and  of 
each  member  of  it."  Can  you  conceive  of  anything 
more  fatal,  more  monstrous,  more  immoral  than  a 
doctrine  which  declares  men  lost  without  Christ, 
and  then  refuses  to  make  Christ  known  to  them  ? 
The  Church  that  proclaims  its  belief  in  the  Lord  of 
all,  and  declares  that  there  is  none  other  name 
under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby  we  must 
be  saved  than  the  name  of  Christ,  and  does  not  at 
once  make  it  its  supreme  business  to  make  Jesus 


188  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Christ  known  to  the  whole  world,  is  either  insincere 
in  its  professions  of  belief,  or  it  presents  a  spectacle 
of  a  debased  sense  of  moral  integrity  than  which  I 
can  conceive  of  nothing  more  despicable  and  loath- 
some.    It  will  not  do  for  us  to  cover  the  want  of 
present  missionary  impulse  with  the  excuse  of  pro- 
spective missionary  purpose.     As  Mr.  Eugene  Stock 
has  said :     "  For  whom  are  we  responsible  to  give 
them  the  gospel?     Certainly  not  for  past  genera- 
tions.    They  are  beyond  our  reach.     Nor  for  future 
generations  primarily,  although  what  we  do  ,now 
may  have  great  influence  upon  them.     But  for  the 
present     generation    we     are    surely    responsible. 
Every  living  African  or  Persian  or  Chinaman  has  a 
right  to  the  good  news  of  salvation.     They  are  for 
him;    and    as   a   Chinaman   once   said   to   Kobert 
Stewart,  '  we  break  the  eighth  commandment  if  we 
keep  them  back  from  him.'     So  if  we  vary  the  form 
of  the  phrase  and  simply  say  the  evangelization  of 
this   generation,  this   appears   to   be  a  plain  and 
elementary  duty.     We  may  not  have  the  expressed 
command  of  Christ  for  it,  but  we  have  the  general 
command  to  make  the  gospel  known  to  those  who 
know  it  not.     There  seems  no  escape  from  the  con- 
clusion that  the  duty  to  make  it  known  to  all,  that 
is,  to  all  now  alive,  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  case. 
This  doubtless  should  be  our  honest  and  definite 
aim."     And  if  the  world  needs  the  gospel  and  we 
need  at  once  to  give  the  world  the  gospel,  Christ 
also  needs  the  immediate  preaching  of  his  gospel  to 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  189 

the  world.  Our  delay  is  not  alone  the  source  of 
loss  and  death  to  ourselves  and  to  men ;  it  prolongs 
the  travail  of  the  soul  of  Christ,  and  defers  the 
long  expected  day  of  his  triumph. 

"  The  restless  millions  wait 
The  light  whose  dawning  maketh  all  things  new," 

is  only  a  half  truth ; 

'*  Christ  also  waits,  but  men  are  slow  and  late." 

And  what  are  God's  present  dealings  with  us 
designed  to  teach  us  if  not  that  he  is  ready  to  do 
great  things  ?  As  Dr.  Wilder  used  to  say  :  "  The 
largeness  of  God's  blessing  on  the  puny  efforts 
already  made  for  evangelizing  the  heathen,  demon- 
strates beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt,  that  we 
are  well  able  to  evangelize  the  whole  world  in  a 
single  generation."  Bishop  Moule,  of  Hangchow, 
told  me  when  in  China,  that  when  he  came  to 
Hangchow  there  were  forty  Protestant  Christians 
in  the  Chinese  Empire.  He  has  seen  in  his  lifetime 
the  Protestant  Church  in  China  multiplied  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  per  cent.,  and  penetrate 
to  almost  every  prefecture  of  the  Empire.  Of  the 
great  province  of  Manchuria,  a  barren  field  twenty 
years  ago,  Dr.  Boss,  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterian 
Church,  now  declares :  "  The  gospel  is  speedily 
gaining  such  a  rapid  diffusion  that  we  may  antici- 
pate at  no  distant  date  its  contact  with  every 
village  and  town  in  the  country."    While  there  is 


190  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

nothing  in  God  to  bar  our  seeing  all  over  the  world 
repetitions  of  the  triumph  which  George  Pilking- 
ton  describes  in  Uganda :  "  A  hundred  thousand 
souls  brought  into  close  contact  with  the  gospel, 
half  of  them  able  to  read  for  themselves ;  two 
hundred  buildings  raised  by  native  Christians  in 
which  to  worship  God  and  read  his  word ;  two 
hundred  native  evangelists  and  teachers  entirely 
supported  by  the  native  Church ;  ten  thousand 
copies  of  the  New  Testament  in  circulation;  six 
thousand  souls  eagerly  seeking  daily  instruction  ; 
statistics  of  baptism,  of  confirmation,  of  adherents, 
of  teachers,  more  than  doubling  yearly  for  the  last 
six  or  seven  years,  ever  since  the  return  of  the 
Christians  from  exile ;  the  power  of  God  shown  by 
changed  lives ;  and  all  this  in  the  center  of  the 
thickest  spiritual  darkness  in  the  world !  .  .  . 
'  The  world  to  be  evangelized  in  this  generation  ' — 
can  it  be  done  ?  Kyagwe,  a  province  fifty  miles 
square,  has  had  the  gospel  preached,  by  lip  and  life, 
through  almost  every  village  in  the  space  of  one 
short  year,  by  some  seventy  native  evangelists, 
under  the  supervision  of  only  two  Europeans ! 
The  teacher  on  Busi  has  by  this  time  probably 
accomplished  his  purpose  of  visiting  every  house  in 
that  island  with  the  message  of  salvation  on  his 
lips.  Soon  we  may  hope  that  there  will  be  no 
house  left  in  Uganda  that  has  not  had  God's  mes- 
sage brought  thus  to  its  very  threshold."  We  need 
to  recall  in  this  matter  that  it  is  for  God  that  we 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  191 

are  working.  I  said  a  moment  ago,  that  if  this 
were  a  human  enterprise  men  would  scorn  to  waste 
time  in  discussing  its  feasibility.  Shall  we  have 
less  faith  in  God  than  men  have  in  themselves  ?  If 
the  work  of  evangelizing  the  world  at  once  as  a 
human  enterprise  is  practicable,  does  it  become  im- 
practicable when  we  realize  that  it  is  a  divine  en- 
terprise ?  We  keep  falling  back  upon  this  fallacy 
in  our  thoughts  about  it.  We  need  to  remind 
ourselves  of  the  question  with  which  Sojourner 
Truth  rebuked  Frederick  Douglass,  when  in  one  of 
his  moods  of  despair  as  to  his  people  ; — the  question 
alleged  to  have  been  addressed  by  his  wife  to 
Martin  Luther  also  :  "  Frederick,  is  God  dead  ?  " 
My  friends,  who  set  us  this  work  to  do  ?  On  whose 
errand  is  it  that  we  are  going  ?  Whose  kingdom 
is  to  be  established  ?  It  was  the  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth  to  whom  power  was  given,  and  nothing 
is  impossible  with  him,  who,  when  he  said,  "  Go 
ye,"  said  in  the  same  breath,  "And  I  am  with  you." 
Now,  if  we  can,  and  we  ought,  shall  we? 
The  general  duty  of  world-evangelization  the 
Church  has  acknowledged  for  years,  and  neglected. 
Is  this  not  the  hour  to  acknowledge  our  duty  once 
again,  and  perform  ?  But  men  say,  is  it  not 
God's  rule  to  work  by  slow  and  unperceived 
change,  lodging  in  human  life  principles  which 
creep  imperceptibly  outward  until  at  last  great 
changes  are  wrought  before  men  are  aware  ?  Do 
not  Schmidt  and  Lecky  and  a  hundred  more  demon- 


192  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

strate  "  that  social  emancipation  has  been  far  more 
the  result  of  the  indirect  than  of  the  direct  action 
of  Christianity.  Even  slavery  was  allowed  to  exist 
within  the  borders  of  the  Church  until  the  leaven 
of  the  Christian  spirit  had  so  operated  that  slavery 
became  impossible.  Great  changes  come  slowly." 
This  is  true ;  but  it  was  in  a  cataclysm  of  heroic 
wrath  against  the  iniquity  of  human  slavery,  and 
of  noble  pity  for  the  human  slave,  that  at  last  the 
chains  of  that  iniquity  were  broken.  It  is  true  that 
the  forces  of  God  work  quietly  and  imperceptibly 
until  the  hour  of  judgment  strikes.  There  were 
the  long  expectant  years  of  prophecy  borne  with 
the  agony  of  hope  deferred,  but  then  at  last  there 
came  a  man  sent  from  God,  whose  name  was  John, 
and  on  his  heels  the  Messiah  broke  upon  the  nation. 
The  long  centuries  we  call  the  Dark  Ages  threw  their 
black  shadows  over  the  world,  and  the  forces  of 
God  wrought  silently  and  unperceived  beneath  ; 
but  at  last  the  thunders  of  the  Keformation  tore 
the  sky,  and  great  lies  were  slain  in  an  hour  that 
had  worn  crowns  and  held  scepters  and  damned 
men. 

"  'Tis  first  the  night,  stern  night  of  storm  and  war, 
Long  night  of  heavy  clouds  and  veiled  skies  ; 
Then  the  far  sparkle  of  the  morning  star 
That  bids  the  saints  awake,  and  dawn  arise." 

God's  method  in  history  is  to  prepare,  but  it  is 
also,  having  prepared,  to  strike;  and  his  method 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  193 

we  must  believe  in  the  world's  evangelization  is  the 
same.  "  Many  persons  mistake  the  way  in  which 
the  conversion  of  India  will  be  brought  about,"  said 
Sir  Charles  Trevelyan.  "  I  believe  it  will  take 
place  wholesale,  just  as  our  own  ancestors  were 
converted.  The  country  will  have  Christian  in- 
struction infused  into  it  in  every  way  by  direct 
missionary  education,  and  indirectly  by  books  of 
various  sorts,  through  the  public  papers,  through 
conversations  with  Europeans,  and  in  all  the  con- 
ceivable ways  in  which  knowledge  is  communicated. 
Then  at  last  when  society  is  completely  saturated 
with  Christian  knowledge,  and  public  opinion  has 
taken  a  decided  turn  that  way,  they  will  come  over 
by  thousands."  But  just  when  India,  or  any  other 
land  is  ready  to  swing  over  to  Christ,  we  may  not 
tell.  That  this  is  the  day  when  the  trial  should  be 
made  and  the  opportunity  given,  we  dare  not 
doubt.  For  one  hundred  years  the  forces  which 
are  pouring  into  the  world  still  from  the  pierced 
hands  of  Christ  have  been  fashioning  in  heathen 
lands  the  thoughts  of  men,  shattering  their  super- 
stitions, cutting  away  old  restraints,  and  shaping 
the  whole  course  of  their  unresting  movement. 
But  all  this  so  to  speak  indirect  evangelization  is 
but  preparatory  to  that  supreme  discharge  of  her 
duty  by  the  Christian  Church,  which  shall  show  to 
the  whole  world  that  God  has  been  making  it  ready 
to  become  the  kingdom  of  his  Son.  To  do  this 
thing  now  is  the  duty  of  this  generation.     "  The 

13 


194  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

world  has  too  long  been  under  the  influence,"  as 
the  Sandwich  Islands  missionaries  said,  "  of  the 
scheme  of  committing  the  heathen  to  the  next  gen- 
eration." "  I  regard  the  idea  of  the  evangelization 
of  the  world,"  says  one  of  our  own  missionaries, 
Dr.  J.  C.  R.  Ewing,  "  in  this  generation  as  entirely 
scriptural.  There  is  not  a  hint  in  the  "Word  to  lead 
us  to  adopt  the  popular  theory  that  it  is  the  Church's 
task  to  strive,  generation  after  generation,  to  gather 
out  the  few.  '  The  gospel  to  every  creature ' — that 
means  to  every  man  and  woman  living  now.  It  is 
the  fault  of  the  Church  if  from  amongst  the  present 
living  generation  any  advance  to  old  age  without 
hearing  of  Christ  and  his  salvation." 

Some  such  noble  idea  as  this  is  the  vital  need  of 
the  Christian  Church.  There  was  a  time  when  the 
Church  had  to  fight  doctrinally  for  her  life ;  when 
heresy  after  heresy,  involving  the  most  funda- 
mental issues  in  the  evangelical  faith  assailed  her, 
and  so  hedged  her  in  that  the  mere  struggle  for  ex- 
istence consumed  all  her  strength.  That  day  went 
by  long  ago.  For  the  Church  now  to  spend  her 
whole  strength  on  that  battlefield  is  to  war  with 
phantoms,  save  as  the  neglect  of  personal  living 
duty  will  furnish  the  very  soil  in  which  fresh 
heresies  will  grow.  Let  her  hear  the  call  of  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest  bidding  her  go  out  now  into 
the  highways  and  the  hedges  and  the  ungarnered 
fields,  and  compel  men  to  come  in.  A  Church 
wholly  surrendered  to  Christ's  personal  leadership, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  195 

utterly  bent  upon  the  largest  human  service,  filled 
with  the  passion  of  a  great  and  divine  love,  will 
escape  heresy  by  subduing  unbelief.  Oh,  my  friends, 
our  Church  needs  a  supreme  world  purpose,  such  as 
this  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  that  will  forbid 
our  trifling  away  the  time  of  God,  playing  with 
details  while  men  die.  And  if  you  wish  to  lay  hold 
upon  the  hearts  of  the  young  men  and  the  young 
women,  without  whom  the  Church  cannot  live,  you 
must  offer  them  some  such  masterful  mission  as 
this.  It  was  this  that  thrilled  the  early  Church. 
"Yea,  so  have  I  been  ambitious,"  said  Paul,  "to 
preach  the  gospel  not  where  Christ  was  already 
named,  lest  I  should  build  on  another  man's  founda- 
tion ;  but  as  it  is  written,  They  shall  see,  to  whom 
no  tidings  of  him  came,  and  they  who  have  not 
heard  shall  understand."  You  must  win  young 
men  and  young  women  by  offering  them  the  glory 
of  a  great  service,  which  is  also  a  great  sacrifice.  I 
knpw  their  hearts,  and  I  tell  you  they  are  lost  to 
the  Church  that  does  not  look  out  upon  the  world 
with  the  very  eyes  of  Christ,  and  hunger  for  it 
with  his  hunger,  and  teach  its  children  to  live  for 
it  and  to  die  for  it  with  devotion  like  his. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  work  is  enormous. 
But  its  difficulties  are  its  glory.  "  I  will  tarry  at 
Ephesus  until  Pentecost,"  said  Paul  in  one  of  his 
Epistles,  "for  a  great  door  and  effectual  is  open 
unto  me,  and  there  are  many  adversaries."  We 
should  have  said  "  but."    But  no  such  thought  pol- 


196  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

luted  Paul's  spirit ;  "  and  adversaries  ;  " — they  con- 
stituted his  opportunity ;  they  did  not  qualify 
it.  They  made  Ephesus  a  field  of  work  which  he 
could  not  resist.  When  Xavier  looked  from  San- 
cian  toward  the  barred  gates  of  China,  and  cried, 
"  O  rock,  rock,  when  wilt  thou  open  to  my  Mas- 
ter ?  "  he  called  every  heroic  heart  in  the  Christian 
Church  to  give  itself  to  the  evangelization  of  that 
sealed  land.  Of  all  the  mission  fields  in  the  world 
to-day,  is  there  one  which  stirs  the  hearts  of  true 
men  and  kindles  in  their  souls  again  the  ardor 
of  the  Crusades  and  the  zeal  of  Kaymond  Lull,  as 
Islam?  Christianity  from  the  beginning  has 
"  relished  tasks  for  their  bigness,"  as  Stanley  said 
of  Glave,  "and  greeted  hard  labor  with  a  fierce 
joy."  "  I  am  happy,"  wrote  Neesima,  "  in  a  medi- 
tation on  the  marvelous  growth  of  Christianity  in 
the  world,  and  believe  that  if  it  finds  any  obstacles 
it  will  advance  still  faster  and  swifter,  as  the  stream 
does  run  faster  when  it  does  find  any  hindrances  on 
the  course." 

I  have  purposely  said  this  to  suggest  and  make 
room  for  all  the  objections  which  lack  of  faith  and 
lack  of  love  can  bring  to  birth  in  our  hearts.  The 
immediate  evangelization  of  the  world,  men  say, 
would  involve  superficial  work;  let  us  be  slow  and 
thorough.  Slow  and  thorough  is  one  thing ;  slow 
and  stagnant  is  another.  Superficial  work  !  "Who 
proposed  that  the  world  should  be  superficially 
evangelized  ?     I  have  been  quoting  our  own  mis- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  197 

sionaries  this  afternoon,  men  like  Dr.  Mateer  and 
Dr.  Ewing,  who  are  engaged  in  educational  work 
in  the  most  thorough  educational  institutions  in 
China  and  North  India,  for  the  purpose  of  show- 
ing that  men  who  are  doing  the  most  solid 
and  substantial  mission  work  in  the  world  are  not 
blinded  thereby  to  the  Church's  immediate  duty  to 
make  Jesus  Christ  known  to  every  creature.  Su- 
perficial work !  I  suppose  that  in  our  Lord's  par- 
able that  husbandman  escaped  this  peril  who 
wrapped  his  pound  in  a  napkin  and  hid  it  in  the 
ground.  But  the  Lord  gave  his  commendation  to 
the  man  who,  having  five  pounds,  traded  with 
them  superficially,  on  the  face  of  the  ground,  and 
made  with  them  five  other  pounds.  We  have  be- 
trayed our  Lord  under  the  pretense  of  doing  thor- 
oughly his  work  in  this  land,  where  we  have  sown 
the  seed  over  and  over  again  in  ground  already 
sowed,  while  two-thirds  of  the  human  race  have 
been  allowed  to  live  and  die  in  ignorance  of  the  fact 
that  there  is  a  Saviour  or  any  love  of  God.  And 
in  our  folly  we  have  forfeited  the  richest  spiritual 
blessing  at  home  by  deliberately  transgressing  the 
plainest  divine  law,  "  There  is  that  scattereth  and 
yet  increaseth,  and  there  is  that  withholdeth  more 
than  is  meet,  but  it  tendeth  to  poverty."  Or,  it  is 
said  that  the  project  of  evangelizing  the  world, 
practical  enough  theoretically,  is  actually  imprac- 
ticable. Men  are  too  much  engrossed,  it  is  said,  in 
the  pursuit  of  gain. 


198  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

"  By  other  sounds  the  world  is  won 
Than  that  which  wails  from  Macedon  ; 
The  roar  of  gain  is  round  it  rolled, 
Or  men  unto  themselves  are  sold, 
And  cannot  list  the  alien  cry, 
1  Oh,  hear  and  help  us  lest  we  die  ! '  " 

But  what  is  this  but  the  confession  that  we  can- 
not do  our  duty  because  we  will  not?  Or,  it  is 
said  that  the  immediate  evangelization  of  the  world 
is  a  visionary  and  childlike  project.  I  think  it  is. 
And  where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish ; 
"  and  except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little 
children,  ye  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  It  is 
a  project  of  childlike  faith  and  of  glorious  vision. 
And  these  are  the  visions  of  it :  A  Church  obedient 
to  her  Head,  warm  with  the  glow  of  a  great  love, 
and  thrilled  with  all  the  activities  of  a  perfect 
service ;  a  redeemed  world  free  from  the  bondage 
of  its  sin,  and  worshiping  with  glad  hearts ;  and  in 
innumerable  homes,  and  with  hearts  and  homes 
alike  purified,  adoring  the  world's  Kedeemer ;  and  a 
reigning  Saviour  crowned  at  last,  rejoicing  in  the 
love  of  his  Church,  and  satisfied  with  the  success 
of  his  work  for  the  world.  These  are  the  visions 
which  the  evangelization  of  the  world  lifts  before 
our  eyes.  Is  there  anything  to  shrink  from  in  them  ? 
Could  there  be  visions  more  enticing  ? 

Let  us  go  up  at  once  to  complete  this  work. 
Whether  or  not  the  whole 'Church  of  Christ  will 
awake  to  her  duty,  at  least  let  us  not  be  asleep  to 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  199 

ours.  Whether  the  whole  Church  can  evangelize 
the  whole  world  or  not,  we  can  evangelize  the  fields 
for  which  we  are  immediately  responsible.  "What 
Mr.  Moffett  says  of  Korea,  is  essentially  true  of  all 
of  them.  "  Korea  can  be  evangelized  within  a  gen- 
eration, but  in  order  to  accomplish  it  there  is  needed 
an  added  force  of  forty  thoroughly  qualified  mis- 
sionaries of  enthusiastic,  victorious  faith  in  God  and 
his  message.  It  would  also  be  necessary  to  have  on 
the  *bome  field,  a  Church  willing  to  send  them  and 
to  stand  back  of  them  in  prayer,  led  by  pastors  who 
will  influence  their  people  to  appreciate  the  privi- 
lege as  well  as  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  perform 
its  God-given  office  of  world-wide  evangelization." 
There  are  many  things  for  which  we  are  not  re- 
sponsible, which  sweep  out  beyond  the  reach  of  our 
influence  or  direction.  But  for  this  one  thing  we 
are.  As  the  appeal  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference 
to  the  Christian  Church  declared :  "  Entrusting  to 
him  the  certain  guidance  of  the  great  tides  of  in- 
fluence and  life  which  are  beyond  our  control,  it  is 
for  us  to  keep  the  commandments  of  his  Son,  and 
carry  to  those  for  whom  he  lived  and  died  and 
rose  again  the  message  of  the  goodness  and  love  of 
their  Father  and  ours.  We  who  live  now  and  have 
this  message  must  carry  it  to  those  who  live  now 
and  are  without  it.  It  is  the  duty  of  each  genera- 
tion of  Christians  to  make  Jesus  Christ  known  to 
their  fellow-creatures.  It  is  our  duty  through  our 
preachers  and  those  forces  and  institutions  which 


200  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

grow  up  where  the  gospel  prevails,  to  attempt  now  the 
speedy  evangelization  of  the  whole  world.  We  be- 
lieve this  to  be  God's  present  call,  '  Whom  shall  I 
send,  and  who  will  go  for  us  ? '  We  appeal  to  all 
Christian  ministers  set  by  divine  appointment  as 
leaders  of  the  people,  to  hear  this  call  and  speak  it 
to  the  Church,  and  we  appeal  to  all  God's  people  to 
answer  as  with  one  voice,  '  Lord,  here  am  I,  send 
me.'" 

I  have  ventured  to  speak  of  this  great  duty  in 
other  terms  than  those  employed  in  the  assigned 
subject,  "The  speedy  bringing  of  the  world  to 
Christ."  The  speedy  bringing  of  the  world  to 
Christ  is  a  consequence ;  the  speedy  bringing  of 
Christ  to  the  world  is  the  necessary  preliminary. 
The  world  can  never  be  brought  to  Christ  until 
Christ  is  first  brought  to  the  world.  It  is  vain  for 
us  to  ask  God  for  one,  until  we  have  done  the  other. 
If  we  bring  Christ  to  the  world,  God  will  bring  the 
world  to  Christ.  And  the  fact  that  God  has  bidden 
us  to  do  this  thing,  lifts  our  duty  at  once  above  all 
cavil  and  excuse.  Let  us  persuade  ourselves  of 
this  once  for  all  by  these  three  great  testimonies : 
"During  the  latter  part  of  these  eighteen  centu- 
ries," said  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  at  the  Liverpool 
Missionary  Conference,  "  it  has  been  in  the  power 
of  those  who  hold  the  truth,  having  means  enough, 
having  knowledge  enough,  and  having  opportunity 
enough,  to  evangelize  the  globe  fifty  times  over." 
"  It  is  my  deep  conviction,"  said  Simeon  Calhoun, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  201 

the  Saint  of  Lebanon,  as  the  Syrians  called  him,  in 
his  dying  words,  "  and  I  say  it  again  and  again,  that 
if  the  Church  of  Christ  were  what  she  ought  to  be, 
twenty  years  would  not  pass  away  until  the  story 
of  the  Cross  will  be  uttered  in  the  ears  of  every  liv- 
ing man."  And  the  testimony  of  One  greater  than 
either  of  these,  whose  name  is  above  every  other 
name,  who,  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  sat  wearied  by 
Jacob's  well,  and  lifting  up  his  eyes  and  looking 
upon  the  people  as  they  came  to  him  from  the 
village,  drawn  by  the  testimony  of  the  woman  that 
he  was  the  Christ,  said  to  his  disciples,  "  Say  not 
ye  there  are  yet  four  months,  and  then  cometh  the 
harvest  ?  Behold  I  say  unto  you,  Lift  up  your  eyes, 
and  look  on  the  fields,  that  they  are  white  already 
unto  harvest."  The  fields  that  were  white  then, 
are  white  now,  if  we  had  but  eyes  to  see,  and  hearts 
to  heed. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 
MOVEMENT 


REPORT  ON  THE  MEMORIAL  FUND 


THE   TWENTIETH  CENTURY  MOVEMENT 


EEPORT  ON  THE  MEMOEIAL  FUND * 

1  This  report  was  read  as  a  part  of  the  proceedings  of  the  even- 
ing, by  order  of  the  Assembly. 


The  committee  on  the  Twentieth  Century  Fund, 
through  its  chairman,  Rev.  Marcus  A.  Brownson, 
D.  D.,  presented  its  report,  as  follows : 

The  committee  appointed  by  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  1900  to  direct  the  raising  of  a  fund  for  the 
strengthening  of  the  Church  and  its  Boards  and  in- 
stitutions, in  order  to  a  larger  work  in  the  new 
century,  would  report  to  the  General  Assembly  of 
1901,  as  follows : 

The  resolutions  of  the  General  Assembly  author- 
izing this  movement  were : 

"  1.  That  a  special  memorial  fund,  to  be  known 
as  the  Twentieth  Century  Fund,  be  raised  for  the 
endowment  of  Presbyterian  academic,  collegiate 
and  theological  institutions,  for  the  enlargement  of 
missionary  enterprises,  for  the  erection  of  church 
buildings  and  the  payment  of  debts  upon  churches 

205 


206  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

and  educational  institutions,  and  for  the  other  work 
of  the  Boards,  at  the  option  of  the  donors ;  contri- 
butions to  specific  objects  to  be  strictly  regarded, 
and  contributions  to  the  general  work  to  be  distrib- 
uted according  to  the  proportions  which  have  been 
designated  by  our  General  Assembly  as  applying  to 
miscellaneous  offerings ;  and  care  shall  be  taken 
that  this  special  effort  shall  in  no  way  conflict  with 
or  diminish  the  regular  contributions  to  the  treas- 
uries of  the  several  Boards. 

"  2.  That  in  connection  with  the  fund  a  central 
committee  be  appointed,  to  consist  of  seven  minis- 
ters and  six  elders,  whose  headquarters  shall  be  in 
Philadelphia ;  which  committee  shall  have  a  general 
supervision  of  the  work,  shall  publish  appropriate 
literature  for  the  furtherance  of  the  object,  making 
the  widest  possible  distribution  of  the  same,  all  ex- 
penses to  be  met  out  of  the  general  contributions  ; 
and  that  the  Stated  Clerk  of  the  General  Assembly 
be  appointed  treasurer  of  the  fund,  to  serve  with- 
out expense,  except  for  such  clerical  assistance  as 
may  be  required  "  {Minutes  for  1900,  p.  19). 

The  moderator  announced  the  appointment  of  the 
following  persons  to  constitute  this  special  commit- 
tee :  Ministers — Marcus  A.  Brownson,  D.  D.,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa. ;  George  T.  Purves,  D.  D.,  New  York, 
K  Y. ;  Richard  S.  Holmes,  D.  D.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. ; 
Robert  Hunter,  D.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. ;  Richard 
D.  Harlan,  Rochester,  N.  Y. ;  William  J.  Chiches- 
ter, D.  D.,  Chicago,  111. ;  William  J.  McKittrick, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  207 

D.  D.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  Ruling  Elders— John  H. 
Converse,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Louis  H.  Severance, 
Cleveland,  O. ;  Frank  K.  Hippie,  Philadelphia,  Pa. ; 
John  Wanainaker,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  William  E. 
Dodge,  New  York,  N.  Y. ;  William  B.  Gurley, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

The  moderator  was  authorized  by  the  Assembly 
to  increase  the  committee  {Minutes  for  1900, 
p.  154),  and  subsequently,  with  a  view  to  a  fuller 
representation  of  the  different  parts  of  the  Church, 
added  the  following  persons  to  its  membership: 
Ministers— James  McLeod,  D.  D.,  Scranton,  Pa.; 
Donald  Guthrie,  D.  D.,  Baltimore,  Md. ;  J.  Kinsey 
Smith,  D.  D.,  Louisville,  Ky. ;  E.  Trumbull  Lee, 
D.  D.,  Cincinnati,  O. ;  James  D.  Paxton,  D.  D.,  St. 
Paul,  Minn. ;  Thomas  V.  Moore,  Omaha,  Neb. ; 
Robert  F.  Coyle,  D.  D.,  Denver,  Col. ;  John  Hemp- 
hill, D.  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. ;  Edgar  P.  Hill, 
D.  D.,  Portland,  Ore. ;  A.  Nelson  Hollifield,  D.  D., 
Newark,  N.  J.  Ruling  Elders — H.  Edwards  Row- 
land, New  York,  N.  Y. ;  William  M.  Lanning, 
Trenton,  N.  J. ;  William  P.  Potter,  Pittsburg,  Pa. ; 
Albert  P.  Stevens,  Albany,  N.  Y. ;  S.  M.  Clement, 
Buffalo,  N.  Y. ;  John  Willis  Baer,  Boston,  Mass. ; 
James  Joy,  Detroit,  Mich. ;  James  A.  Mount, 
Indianapolis,  Ind. ;  S.  A.  Harris,  Minneapolis, 
Minn. ;  C.  A.  Maynard,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

The  committee  and  the  Church  were  called  to 
mourn  the  deaths  of  Dr.  Hollifield  and  Governor 
Mount,  whose  cordial  interest  gave  promise  of  great 


208  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

usefulness  in  this  service  to  our  Church.  The 
moderator  appointed  in  place  of  Dr.  Hollifield,  Rev. 
Dr.  Lyman  W.  Allen,  D.  D.,  but  no  person  as  yet 
in  place  of  Governor  Mount. 

The  committee,  as  thus  constituted,  has  prosecuted 
the  work  intrusted  to  it  with  diligence  and  vigor. 

A  meeting  for  organization  was  held  in  Philadel- 
phia, June  26,  1900,  and  the  committee  gave  care- 
ful consideration  to  the  work  assigned  to  it  by  the 
General  Assembly.  The  Philadelphia  members  of 
the  committee  were  made  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee, with  power  to  arrange  all  details  of  the  work. 
The  treasurer  of  the  fund,  Rev.  Dr.  W.  H.  Roberts, 
was  made  the  secretary  of  the  General  and  the 
Executive  Committees,  and  was  requested  to  cor- 
respond with  moderators  and  stated  clerks  of  all 
the  Presbyteries  and  Synods.  This  laborious  and 
freely  rendered  service  resulted  in  the  efficient 
organization  of  our  work  in  190  Presbyteries  and  in 
most  of  the  Synods. 

It  was  determined  by  the  committee  to  place 
before  the  whole  Church  the  following  objects  as 
contemplated  by  the  action  of  the  Assembly  : 

1.  The  increase  of  contributions  to  all  the 
Boards  of  the  Church. 

2.  The  enlargement  of  the  work  of  the  Boards 
as  suggested  by  them. 

3.  The  increased  endowment  of  academic,  col- 
legiate and  theological  institutions. 

4.  The  payment  of  local  church  debts. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  209 

5.  The  improvement  of  the  properties  of  con- 
gregations and  institutions. 

6.  Church  extension  in  cities. 

7.  The  establishment  or  endowment  of  hospitals 
and  other  benevolent  institutions  connected  with 
our  Church. 

8.  Special  efforts  for  strengthening  the  general 
interests  of  the  Church,  assumed  by  individuals, 
congregations,  Presbyteries  or  Synods. 

It  was  further  determined  by  the  committee  to 
labor  directly  for  the  welfare  of  the  Boards  of  the 
Church  and  the  Theological  Seminaries  under  the 
control  of  the  Assembly.  It  was  also  decided  to 
request  Synodical  Committees  to  prosecute  the 
work  of  gathering  gifts  for  academic  and  collegiate 
institutions  sustaining  relations  to  them,  and  for 
Synodical  Sustentation  in  Synods  in  which  that 
method  of  home  missionary  work  is  followed  ;  and 
still  further,  Presbyteries  were  requested  to  stimu- 
late congregations  to  pay  off  any  existing  indebted- 
ness that  might  hinder,  on  the  part  of  these  con- 
gregations, the  enlargement  of  the  missionary, 
benevolent  and  educational  work  of  the  Church ;  to 
make  any  needed  improvements  in  church  build- 
ings ;  to  establish  new  churches  where  needed,  and, 
in  general,  to  strengthen  the  denomination  within 
their  bounds. 

This  plan  has  been  adhered  to  and  the  cordial 
cooperation  of  synodical  and  presbyterial  Commit- 
tees is  hereby  gratefully  acknowledged. 
14 


210  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

The  committee  desires  also  to  express  its  obliga- 
tions to  former  committees  of  the  General  Assembly 
of  a  similar  character,  particularly  the  Anniversary 
Reunion  Committee,  the  Committee  on  the  Centen- 
ary Fund,  and  the  Committee  on  the  Memorial 
Reunion  Fund,  whose  principles  of  procedure  have 
been  largely  followed,  and  whose  successful  work 
has  been  a  great  inspiration. 

The  executive  section  of  the  committee  has  held 
frequent  meetings  throughout  the  year,  having 
established  quarters  in  Rooms  401-2,  Witherspoon 
Building,  Philadelphia,  generously  provided  by  the 
Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath-School  "Work, 
without  expense  to  the  Church.  In  pursuance  of 
its  work,  the  Executive  Committee,  together  with 
Rev.  Dr.  George  T.  Purves,  Mr.  H.  Edwards  Row- 
land, of  New  York,  and  Mr.  L.  H.  Severance,  of 
Cleveland,  of  the  General  Committee,  met  with  the 
Secretaries  of  our  eight  Church  Boards  on  Novem- 
ber 1,  1900,  in  New  York  city.  The  desires  and 
needs  of  the  Boards  were  talked  over  at  length  at 
this  conference,  and  the  committee  was  informed  as 
to  the  earnest  desires  of  the  various  Boards  for  in- 
creased resources,  in  the  face  of  multiplied  oppor- 
tunities of  advancement  in  every  branch  of  denomi- 
national effort. 

By  the  generosity  of  four  lay  members  of  the 
committee,  the  entire  expenses  incident  to  this 
work  were  promptly  provided  for,  up  to  the  meet- 
ing of  this  General  Assembly,  although  the  com- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  211 

mittee  had  been  authorized  by  the  Assembly  to 
deduct  the  amount  of  its  expenses  from  the  general 
contributions.  These  personal  gifts  enabled  the 
committee  to  announce  at  the  beginning  of  its 
work,  that  every  dollar  contributed  to  the  objects 
included  in  the  fund  would  go  as  directed  by  the 
donors.  It  has  been  a  unique  feature  in  this  work ; 
no  such  committee,  in  the  history  of  the  General 
Assembly,  having  thus  provided  for  its  own 
expenses. 

At  the  suggestion  of  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Boards,  and  subsequently  after  careful  considera- 
tion by  the  committee,  it  was  determined  to  secure 
the  services  of  a  representative  of  the  fund  who 
should  visit  the  various  cities  of  the  country,  and 
by  addressing  public  meetings  in  these  centers  of 
influence,  and  by  communications  with  individuals 
throughout  the  Church,  thus  bring  the  plan  before 
the  Church  at  large. 

The  moderator  of  the  General  Assembly,  Kev. 
Charles  A.  Dickey,  D.  D.,  was  unanimously  agreed 
upon,  and,  after  conference  with  the  Session  and 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Bethany  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Philadelphia,  of  which  church  Dr.  Dickey 
is  one  of  the  pastors,  and  with  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  the  Presbyterian  Hospital  of  Philadelphia,  of 
which  institution  Dr.  Dickey  is  the  president,  the 
committee  was  able  to  persuade  him  to  accept  the 
office  of  representative  of  the  fund,  from  December 
1, 1900,  to  the  1st  of  June,  1901. 


212  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

It  has  been  of  the  highest  value  to  this  work, 
that  it  has  been  so  forcibly  presented  by  the  mod- 
erator of  the  General  Assembly  in  the  leading 
cities  of  the  land.  Dr.  Dickey  will  make  a  separate 
report  of  his  work  to  the  Assembly.  The  com- 
mittee desires  to  record  its  gratitude  and  the  grati- 
tude of  the  Church  to  him  for  his  earnest  and 
efficient  advocacy  of  this  cause. 

From  the  office  of  the  committee  in  the  Wither- 
spoon  Building,  hundreds  of  letters  to  pastors, 
prominent  laymen,  presbyterial  and  synodical 
committeemen  have  been  sent  out.  Eight  series  of 
circulars,  setting  forth  in  full  the  nature  and  claims 
of  this  work,  have  been  printed  and  distributed 
throughout  the  Church  to  the  number  of  two  hun- 
dred thousand  copies.  These  circulars  have  set 
forth  the  resolutions  of  the  Assembly  pertaining  to 
the  subject,  the  objects  for  which  contributions  and 
subscriptions  were  requested,  the  statements  from 
the  Boards  and  the  Theological  Seminaries,  and 
with  them  a  specially -prepared  subscription  blank 
has  been  distributed  to  the  extent  of  one  hundred 
thousand  copies. 

The  blank  reads  as  follows : — 

"  In  grateful  recognition  of  the  goodness  of  God 
to  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  during 
the  Nineteenth  Century,  and  of  the  great  oppor- 
tunities for  spiritual  progress  during  the  Twentieth 
Century,   I    hereby   subscribe  to   The    Twentieth 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  213 

Century  Fund,  established  by  the  General  Assembly 
of   the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  the 

sum   of dollars,   in 

the  several  amounts  and  for  the  causes  or  objects 
designated  by  me  on  the  back  of  this  pledge,  to  be 
paid  during  the  year  1901  to  the  Treasurer  of  the 
Fund,  the  Eev.  "W.  H.  Koberts,  D.  D.,  or  to  the 
authorized  representatives  of  such  causes  or  objects. 


[Signature] 


[Place  and  Date]." 

The  Missionary  and  Benevolent  Boards  of  the 
Church  made  request  through  a  circular  issued  by 
the  committee  for  the  following  amounts  as  special 
gifts  in  connection  with  this  fund  : 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions,  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars. 

The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  eight  hundred 
and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars. 

The  Board  of  Education,  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  and  the  establishment  of  additional  scholar- 
ships ranging  in  amount  from  twenty-five  hundred 
to  eight  thousand  dollars  each. 

The  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath-School 
Work,  an  invested  fund  of  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars. 


214  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

The  Board  of  Church  Erection,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars. 

The  Board  of  Belief,  two  invested  funds  yielding 
a  yearly  income  of  forty  thousand  dollars. 

The  Board  of  Missions  for  Freedmen,  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  for  the  endowment 
of  Biddle  University. 

The  Board  of  Aid  for  Colleges,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars. 

The  Theological  Seminaries  of  the  Church  stated 
their  needs  through  a  circular  of  the  committee,  as 
follows : 

Princeton,  five  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

Auburn,  three  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

Western,  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars. 

Lane,  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars. 

Danville,  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  dollars. 

McCormick,  three  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

San  Francisco,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars. 

The  German  Seminary  of  the  Northwest,  fifty 
thousand  dollars. 

The  German  Seminary  of  Newark,  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

Lincoln  University,  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars. 

Omaha,  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  committee  has  noted  with  satisfaction  that 
synodical  committees,  presbyterial  committees, 
the  Boards  and  particular  institutions  have  issued 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  215 

separate  statements  showing  the  needs,  and  the 
claims  upon  the  Church,  of  these  agencies. 

The  religious  press  and  the  secular  press  also 
have  published  important  items  of  information,  and 
have  presented  strong  pleas  for  the  fund. 

The  results  may  not  be  stated  with  fullness  at 
this  time  for  the  reason  that  we  have  only  the  be- 
ginning of  the  returns.  The  entire  Church  has 
been  moved  to  thought  of  larger  and  nobler  things. 
Magnificent  advancements  have  been  planned,  but 
the  scale  upon  which  the  work  has  been  projected 
will  naturally  require  more  time  than  the  interven- 
ing period  between  two  Assemblies  to  bring  the 
work  to  perfection.  The  committee  is  of  the  opin- 
ion that  not  less  than  twenty  millions  of  dollars 
should  be  raised  for  this  fund,  and  that  this  great 
sum  may  be  pledged,  within  a  year  from  this  time, 
if  full  and  hearty  cooperation  of  pastors,  sessions, 
Presbyteries,  Synods  and  the  friends  of  our  educa- 
tional, benevolent  and  missionary  work  can  be 
secured. 

It  is  with  joy  and  gratitude  to  God  that  we  pre- 
sent, through  the  treasurer,  the  report  of  the  fund 
up  to  the  date  of  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly. 
Our  joy  is  the  greater,  and  our  gratitude  is  the  more 
profound  because  we  regard  this  as  only  the  begin- 
ning of  the  gifts  which  the  Church  will  bestow 
upon  advance  work  in  the  New  Century.  The 
gratitude  of  the  committee  and  of  the  Church  are 
due   to   the  treasurer,  Kev.  William   H.  Koberts, 


216  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

D.  D.,  for  the  abundant  and  untiring  labor  which 
he  has  bestowed,  without  compensation,  upon  the 
interests  involved  in  this  fund. 

The  committee  presents  the  following  recom- 
mendations for  adoption  by  the  Assembly  : 

1.  That  the  General  Assembly  calls  upon  every 
church  in  the  denomination  still  burdened  with  in- 
debtedness and  thus  hindered  from  giving  its  full 
share  to  missions  and  benevolence,  to  take  steps 
under  the  inspiration  of  this  movement  to  remove 
this  indebtedness  within  the  next  two  years. 

2.  That  the  General  Assembly  earnestly  request 
congregations  and  individual  givers  throughout  the 
Church  to  prayerfully  consider  the  enlarged  needs 
and  larger  opportunities  of  the  Boards,  of  the 
Theological  Seminaries,  of  the  academic,  collegiate 
and  charitable  institutions  of  the  Church,  and 
speedily  to  provide  for  these  greater  needs  as  the 
Lord  may  enable  them  to  do. 

3.  That  the  General  Assembly  most  earnestly 
calls  upon  the  Synods  and  the  Presbyteries  to  con- 
tinue to  prosecute  this  work  during  the  ensuing 
3^ear  by  organized  effort  and  hearty  cooperation 
with  the  General  Committee. 

4.  That  in  view  of  the  longer  time  necessary  to 
gather  in  the  full  results  of  this  Twentieth  Century 
Movement,  the  Assembly's  Committee  be  continued 
for  another  year,  to  report  to  the  General  Assembly 
in  1902. 

5.  That  moved  by  the  sense  of  gratitude  to  the 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  217 

great  Head  of  the  Church  for  his  abundant  and 
long-continued  goodness  to  our  Presbyterian  de- 
nomination, and  recognizing  our  contemporary 
responsibility  for  the  relief  of  the  suffering,  the 
education  of  the  rising  generation,  and  the  salva- 
tion of  souls  throughout  the  world,  the  General 
Assembly  hereby  expresses  the  deliberate  judgment 
that  it  is  the  sacred  duty  and  blessed  privilege  of 
the  Church  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  century  to 
strengthen  all  the  agencies  and  institutions  em- 
ployed in  our  work,  by  furnishing  a  sum  sufficient 
for  their  enlarged  endowment  and  adequate  sup- 
port ;  and,  in  addition,  bringing  the  tithes  into  the 
storehouse  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  to  seek  by  earnest 
prayer  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise  of  abundant 
spiritual  blessing  attached  to  faithful  discharge  of 
such  a  duty. 

For  the  General  Committee, 

Marcus  A.  Brownson,  Chairman, 

Kobert  Hunter, 

John  H.  Converse, 

Frank  K.  Hipple, 

John  Wanamaker, 

Executive  Committee. 

The  report  of  the  treasurer  of  the  Twentieth 
Century  Fund  was  presented,  as  follows  : — 

The  treasurer  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Fund 
respectfully  presents  the  following  statement  of 
the   total   of  contributions   up   to   May   10,   1901, 


218  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

to  the  several  objects  of  the  fund,  as  reported  to 
him : 

To  the  Boards  of  the  Church $106,030  04 

"  Colleges  and  Academies 330,642  51 

"  Theological  Seminaries 110,767  18 

"  Local   church   debts 1,081,654  20 

"  Local  church  improvements 1,537,913  51 

"  Hospitals 61,659  28 

"  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  .    .  30,900  00 

"  Miscellaneous   objects 117,464  38 

$3,377,031  10 

These  gifts,  it  is  hoped,  are  but  the  beginning  of 
the  Church's  generosity  to  the  fund,  and  it  is  to  be 
noted  have  not  interfered  with  the  contributions 
to  the  Boards,  all  of  whom  report  that  they  are 
without  debt. 

.Respectfully  submitted, 

¥m.  Henky  Roberts,  Treasurer. 


ADDKESS  ON  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 
FUND 

BY  THE 

EEV.  MARCUS  A.  BROWNSON,  D.  D., 
Chairman  of  the  Committee. 


Mr.  Moderator,  Members  of  the  General 
Assembly  and  Presbyterians  of  Phila- 
delphia : — 

The  course  which  the  Twentieth  Century  Me- 
morial Fund  of  our  Church  has  taken,  thus  far,  has 
been  precisely  what  the  committee  anticipated. 
It  was  to  be  expected  that  congregations  laboring 
under  the  burden  of  debt,  and  fronting  exacting 
mortgages  which,  like  the  tares  of  the  parable, 
have  grown  in  extent  while  men  worked  hard  to 
have  fields  free  from  such  encumbrances,  and  also 
while  they  slept,  the  mortgages  knowing  neither 
nights  of  slumber  nor  Sabbaths  of  worshipful  rest — 
it  was  to  be  expected  that  congregations  burdened 
and  hindered  by  debt  should  seize  upon  the  oppor- 
tunity presented  by  this  proposed  fund  to  become 
free  in  the  glorious  liberty  of  financial  inde- 
pendence. 

219 


220  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

It  was  also  to  be  looked  for  that  congregations 
feeling  the  need  of  enlarging  or  improving  the 
Houses  of  Praise  and  Prayer  in  which  they  have 
worshiped,  or  of  the  erection  of  new  and  more 
commodious  edifices,  in  order  to  a  larger  work  in 
the  new  century,  should  take  advantage  of  the 
enthusiasm  for  giving,  born  of  this  great  move- 
ment, to  accomplish  these  much  desired  and  most 
desirable  objects. 

We  may  give  sincere  and  hearty  thanks  to  the 
Head  of  the  Church  for  these  happy  and  hopeful 
conditions.  Freedom  from  indebtedness  means 
ultimately  larger  giving  to  benevolence,  education, 
and  missions,  provided  that  further  indebtedness  be 
not  incurred ;  and  our  expression  of  gratitude  will 
therefore  be  followed  by  the  prayer  that  human 
wisdom  and  divine  restraint  may  prevent  such 
future  complication.  Surely  the  burned  child  will 
dread  the  fire. 

We  may  well  render  praise,  also,  for  improved, 
enlarged  and  new  houses  of  worship,  in  which  the 
larger  assemblies  of  joyous  worshipers  will  become 
the  more  copious  sources  of  cheerful  beneficence 
which  the  Lord  loves. 

Your  committee  would  emphasize  the  call  to  all 
congregations  still  remaining  in  the  unhappy 
bondage  of  the  debtor,  or  hindered  by  inadequate 
facilities  for  worship  and  work,  to  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  the  joyous  churches  which,  so  early  in  the 
new  century,  have  prepared  themselves  to  enter  into 


TWENTIETH  CEMTUBY  ADDRESSES  221 

the  wider  sphere  of  influence  and  into  the  greater 
works  of  Christian  love. 

Your  committee,  however,  is  by  no  means  satis- 
fied with  the  achievements  made  along  the  lines 
indicated,  nor  with  the  beginnings  of  a  larger  and 
more  adequate  support  of  the  great  tasks  belonging 
to  the  Church  in  its  entirety.  The  moneys  which 
have  been  given  are  simply  straws  showing  the 
rising  winds  of  benefactions,  "which  shall  carry  for- 
ward the  larger  blessings  which  are  within  the 
power  of  the  Church  to  bear  to  a  waiting  world. 

For  the  reason  that  this  movement  is  in  its  in- 
cipiency,  and  requires  the  intelligent  interest  and 
the  increasing  inspiration  and  close  care  which  will 
come  from  the  continued  guidance  of  the  forces 
called  into  action,  by  the  chief  court  of  our  Church, 
the  committee  asks  the  Assembly  to  prosecute  the 
task  through  another  year. 

Here,  in  the  birthplace  of  American  liberty,  and 
on  the  spot  where  American  Presbyterianism,  so 
great  a  factor  in  our  noble  form  of  freedom,  was 
organized,  and  here,  at  the  first  meeting  of  our  Gen- 
eral Assembly  in  a  new  era  so  replete  with  oppor- 
tunity for  achievement  and  so  bright  with  promise, 
we  may  surely  expect  to  see  the  Church  we  love 
stirred  to  the  depths  of  its  eager  desire  and  de- 
termination to  bless  our  land  and  the  world,  with 
greater  works  of  Christian  education,  Christian  be- 
nevolence and  Christian  missions,  which,  as  thus  far 
established  by  our  organized  agencies,  have  spread 


222  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

such  happiness  and  hope,  such  comfort  and  con- 
solation, such  truth  and  trust,  near  at  hand  and  far 
afield. 

Strong  emphasis  must  be  laid  upon  the  better 
endowment,  and  more  adequate  support  of  institu- 
tions and  agencies,  which  have  wrought  such  mag- 
nificent effects.  They  are  not  upstarts.  They  are 
in  no  sense  parvenu.  They  are  old,  tried,  proven 
forms  of  successful  work  for  the  advancement  of 
the  kingdom  of  Christ.  They  represent  the  highest 
wisdom,  the  most  determined  purpose,  the  most 
economical  and  effective  manners  of  work,  the 
noblest  consecration,  which  God  has  been  pleased 
to  seal  as  approved  with  his  abundant  blessing. 

The  appeal  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Fund  is 
particularly  in  behalf  of  the  organized  work  of  the 
Church  at  large.  The  local  congregation  is  urged  to 
become  free  and  independent  in  its  financial  equip- 
ment, that  it  may  contribute  to  the  wider  interests 
of  Christ  beyond  its  own  borders.  Individuals  are 
called  to  consider  as  worthy  of  their  gifts,  Church 
Extension  in  cities,  Synodical  Home  Missions,  com- 
monly called  Synodical  Sustentation,  the  Christian 
College,  independent  of  aid  from  the  Board  of  Aid 
for  Colleges,  it  may  be,  but  still  most  dependent 
upon  the  liberality  of  appreciative  Christian  pa- 
trons, the  Theological  Seminary,  of  all  our  institu- 
tions of  learning  the  most  important  to  the  welfare 
of  the  Church,  houses  of  healing  for  the  sick  and 
the  suffering,  homes  of  comfort  for  the  aged,  the 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  223 

orphaned  and  the  destitute — the  eight  benevolent 
and  missionary  Boards  of  the  Church,  that  these 
channels  of  blessing  may  be  filled  to  the  full  with 
streams  of  truth  and  love  and  grace. 

We  must  educate — our  ministers,  our  elders,  our 
Sabbath-school  teachers,  our  Christian  workers. 
Mr.  Bryce,  in  his  work,  entitled  "The  American 
Commonwealth,"  has  written :  "  Nothing  so  strikes 
a  stranger  who  visits  American  Universities  and 
Colleges,  as  the  ardor  with  which  the  younger  gen- 
eration of  this  new  land  has  thrown  itself  into 
study.  This  is  greater  than  that  found  in  Oxford 
or  Cambridge,  or  in  the  Universities  of  Scotland. 
One  is  reminded  of  the  scholars  of  the  Renaissance 
flinging  themselves  into  the  rediscovered  philology, 
or  of  the  German  Universities  after  the  war  of 
liberation.  Nowhere  in  the  world  is  there  growing 
up  such  a  multitude  of  intelligent,  cultivated  read- 
ers. A  civilized  society  like  this  is  so  much  vaster 
than  any  history  knows  of  that  one's  imagination  is 
staggered  at  the  power  for  good  or  evil  rising  to 
higher  levels  year  by  year." 

We  ask,  will  this  new  generation  of  American 
scholars  be  Christians  ?  From  this  new  generation 
of  scholars  can  we  recruit  the  ranks  of  our  ministry, 
and  meet  the  newer  and  larger  needs  which  press 
upon  us  ?  Say  what  we  may  of  other  institutions, 
their  traditions,  their  renown,  their  immense  and 
invaluable  services  to  civilization  and  to  Christianity 
in  general,  the  men  who  are  preaching  in  our  pul- 


224  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

pits,  and  the  men  and  women  who,  from  our  Pres- 
byterian point  of  view,  are  exerting  the  influence  of 
educated  minds  upon  their  age,  have  been,  for  the 
most  part,  trained  for  their  life  work  in  our  own 
colleges.  We  have  a  large  share  of  the  great  work 
of  education  to  do.  Presbyterian  ism  has  always 
been  an  earnest  advocate  of  education,  and  its 
accomplishments  in  that  line  are  among  its  chief 
glories.  The  present  plea  is  not  for  exclusiveness 
but  effectiveness. 

Most  noble  is  the  youngest  of  our  Boards,  which 
aids  the  young  college  and  the  academy  in  the 
struggle  for  proper  maintenance.  A  perpetual 
blessing  to  the  Church  has  been  the  Board  which 
helps  young  men  of  ability  and  consecration  to  ob- 
tain full  educational  equipment  for  the  exacting 
duties  of  the  ministry. 

Let  there  be  no  retrogression  in  the  new  century ; 
rather  let  there  be  preeminent  progression.  And 
the  crown  of  our  system — the  Theological  Seminary 
— ought  to  be  frequently,  if  not  first,  in  our  thoughts 
and  in  our  plans. 

We  must  he  benevolent.  Christ  is  the  head  of  our 
Church.  Our  Saviour  healed,  with  gracious  word 
and  willing  hand.  "We  must  build  the  hospital, 
train  the  nurse.  The  dogmatic  Christianity  of  the 
seminary  is  completed  by  the  practical  relief  and 
consolation  of  the  hospital. 

Amidst  the  agonies  of  the  Cross,  the  Eedeemer 
of  men  paused  in  the  flow  of  his  grief  to  provide 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  225 

a  home  on  earth  for  her  who  gave  him  birth,  until 
that  time  when  she  should  be  with  him,  forever,  in 
the  skies.  We,  ministering  in  his  name,  must  give 
a  home  to  those  who  "  do  his  will "  and  are  to  him 
as  "  a  sister,  a  "brother,  a  mother,"  and  who  are,  in 
old  age  or  in  bereft  condition,  homeless  and  des- 
titute. 

Words  fail  to  express  our  obligation  to  the  aged 
servants  of  Christ  and  the  enfeebled  and  infirm,  for 
whom  the  Church  does  care  with  tender  thought, 
but  who  need,  sorely  need,  far  more  than  they  now 
receive,  while  the  increasing  number  of  annuitants 
of  the  Board  of  Ministerial  Belief  reduces,  year  by 
year,  the  small  stipends  on  which  they  lean  so  grate- 
fully, so  expectantly,  as  their  only  material  staff  in 
the  valley  of  the  shadows. 

We  must  he  a  Missionary  Church.  Our  right  to 
exist  is  involved  in  this.  We  believe  in  the  glory 
of  God  as  the  chief  end  of  man.  "  The  whole  world 
is  to  be  filled  with  his  glory."  The  greatness  of 
the  greatest  work  of  the  Church  grows  in  our 
thoughts  with  each  year  of  attempt  and  achieve- 
ment. On  the  bridge  of  the  centuries,  looking 
backward  to  review  accomplishments,  looking  for- 
ward to  see  possibilities,  we  are  enraptured.  Diffi- 
culties can  no  longer  deter.  Disasters  cannot  dis- 
hearten. Determination  dominates  us.  A  century 
of  organization  will  be  followed  by  a  century  of 
vast  achievement.  And  our  determination  is  so 
confident,  because  above,  about  and  beneath  our 

15 


226  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

purpose  is  the  unalterable  and  triumphant  decree  of 
the  sovereign  God — sovereign  in  grace,  as  in  power. 
There  is  a  divine  logic  of  missions.  The  major 
premise  in  the  commanding  argument  is  the  attitude 
of  Him  who  gave  his  only  begotten  Son  for  a 
world's  salvation.  The  minor  premise  is,  a  Church 
"  willing  in  the  day  of  his  power."  The  conclu- 
sion is,  "the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles,"  and  "all 
Israel,"  "saved." 

Bearing  our  full  share  in  the  work  of  a  world's 
redemption,  we  purpose  maintaining  God-approved 
plans  for  the  evangelization  of  cities,  of  country 
districts,  of  the  black  belt  in  the  Southland,  of  ex- 
ceptional populations  of  our  country.  "We  will 
erect  more  churches  for  struggling  congregations ; 
we  will  gather  into  Bible  schools  the  children  of  the 
missionary  fields,  and  distribute  the  Bible  and  Chris- 
tian literature ;  we  will  go  into  the  vast  regions  be- 
yond the  Father  of  Waters,  where  life  is  strenuous 
and  sin  is  strong,  and  onward  to  the  frozen  North, 
and  then  turn  to  the  islands  of  the  southern  seas, 
where  the  flag  we  love  is  now  the  pledge  of  free- 
dom, and  the  Cross  we  preach  shall  have  fresh  con- 
quests— and  on,  ever  on,  until  we  have  done  as 
much  as  in  us  is  to  reach,  with  the  gospel  of  salva- 
tion, the  last  people  and  the  last  person  thereof,  on 
the  face  of  the  globe. 

These  tasks  of  education,  benevolence,  and  mis- 
sions, require  money  for  their  execution — much 
money — not  meager  but  munificent  amounts.     If 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  227 

you  ask  why  this  exceptional  effort  is  made  just 
now,  the  answer  is  quickly  forthcoming. 

Every  institution,  every  Board  connected  with  our 
Church,  depending  at  all  upon  the  yield  of  invested 
funds,  has  found  itself  leaning  upon  a  rate  of  inter- 
est halved,  while  its  opportunities  and  obligations 
have  been  doubled. 

Moreover,  the  historicity  of  such  efforts  in  our 
Church  gives  warrant  for  this  particular  movement. 
We  have  had  frequent  financial  revivals,  and,  by  the 
aid  of  these,  the  Church  has  advanced,  under  God, 
to  her  present  position  of  power. 

Our  appeal,  in  behalf  of  these  great  interests,  at 
the  opening  of  this  new  epoch,  as  the  time  oppor- 
tune for  advance — our  appeal  is  addressed  to  one 
million  and  seven  thousand  communicants,  to  two 
million  five  hundred  thousand  adherents  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  and  to  one  million  and  eighty-five 
thousand  Sabbath-school  scholars.  Our  appeal  is 
to  men  and  women  of  great  wealth,  who  are 
Christ's  disciples  and  bearers  of  the  loved  and  hon- 
ored name,  Presbyterian.  Our  appeal  is  to  every 
church  of  our  order,  and  every  member  of  every 
church.  Our  appeal  is  to  a  communion  which,  dur- 
ing the  century  closed,  poured  out  before  the  Lord, 
for  education,  benevolence  and  missions,  eighty- 
seven  million  dollars,  and  to  which  the  Lord  gra- 
ciously added,  by  confession  of  faith,  in  that  period, 
two  million  two  hundred  thousand  souls. 

"Well  might  our  Church,  so  blessed  with  spiritual 


228  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

favor,  so  enriched  by  the  treasures  of  earth  which 
her  members  hold  and  control,  inaugurate  a  mighty- 
advance  of  her  organized  work  with  such  a  gift  of 
gratitude  as  is  so  earnestly,  so  prayerfully  requested, 
by  the  representatives  of  her  vast  enterprises.  Well 
might  this  glorious  day  of  review  and  outlook  come 
to  its  close,  ripen  in  its  consummation,  with  the 
high  and  holy  resolve  to  arise  and  heed  this  call. 


THE  DUTY  AND  OPPORTUNITIES  OF 

THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN 

THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 


BY  THE 

Rev.  SAMUEL  J.  NICCOLLS,  D.D.,  LL.  D. 


THE  DUTY  AND  OPPORTUNITIES  OF  THE 

PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE 

TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

BY  THE 

REV.  SAMUEL  J.  NICCOLLS,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


Fathers  and  Brethren  :— 

It  would  be  to  our  discredit  as  representatives  of 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  ask  on  such  an  oc- 
casion as  this,  and  at  so  late  an  hour  in  her  history, 
"  What  is  the  supreme  mission  of  the  Church  ? " 
To  confess  that  we  had  not  yet  discovered  it,  would 
be  to  proclaim  ourselves  unworthy  of  our  position. 
It  was  declared  long  ago,  and  with  such  plainness  of 
definition  that  there  is  no  room  for  doubt  or 
speculation  concerning  it.  The  divine  Founder  of 
the  Church  has  said,  "As  thou  hast  sent  me 
into  the  world  even  so  have  I  also  sent  them  into 
the  world."  The  mission  of  Jesus  Christ  defines 
the  mission  of  his  Church.  It  is  an  unchangeable 
one,  the  same  in  the  twentieth  century  that  it  was 
in  the  first ;  and  so  it  will  continue  while  time  lasts. 
The  Church  of  the  twentieth  century,  if  true  to 

Christ,   has   no  new   gospel  to  preach,   no   other 

001 


231 


232  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

foundation  to  lay  than  that  which  has  been  laid,  no 
other  Book  from  which  to  teach  men,  than  that  in- 
spired and  infallible  one  of  which  she  has  been  the 
custodian  for  ages,  and  no  other  power  by  which 
to  save  men  and  subdue  the  nations,  than  that 
which  comes  from  a  crucified,  but  now  risen  and 
exalted,  Saviour.  She  has  no  other  work  to  ac- 
complish than  that  defined  in  our  Lord's  last 
command. 

But  while  the  great  mission  of  the  Church  re- 
mains the  same,  her  opportunities  for  service  and 
the  corresponding  special  duties  do  not.  "With  the 
changing  times  come  new  duties ;  and  there  must 
be  a  wise  discerning  of  the  times  by  the  followers 
of  Christ  if  they  would  faithfully  discharge  their 
mission.  That  the  new  century  has  brought  us 
face  to  face  with  new  problems,  new  conditions  of 
life,  and  changes  in  the  world,  which  if  they  had 
been  foretold  to  those  who  lived  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  would  have  appeared  in- 
credible, is  a  fact  so  often  dwelt  upon  that  it  has 
become  commonplace.  There  is  also,  a  growing 
conviction  that  still  greater  changes  are  near  at 
hand.  There  is  a  concurrence  of  signs  attesting 
this.  As  by  some  prophetic  instinct,  devout  men 
feel  that  God  is  preparing  a  new  and  glorious 
revelation  of  his  kingdom ;  and  that  he  is  rallying 
the  forces  under  his  control  for  new  conquests.  It 
is  a  time  of  confusion  and  unrest,  of  breaking  away 
from  old  customs  and  beliefs.     Men  are  musing, 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  233 

searching  after  truth,  and  exploiting  new  opinions. 
They  are  casting  aside  old  environments,  challeng- 
ing old  faiths,  and  testing  all  things.  Social  and 
political  changes  affecting  the  temporal  destinies  of 
one  third  of  the  human  race  have  taken  place  be- 
fore our  eyes  with  a  rapidity  that  creates  amaze- 
ment ;  and  the  end  is  not  yet.  Knowledge  has 
broadened ;  the  discoveries  of  science  have  con- 
quered space  and  time  and  brought  the  ends  of  the 
earth  together.  There  is  no  land  of  which  we  can 
say  as  in  former  centuries,  it  is  remote ;  no  nation 
whose  condition  does  not  concern  us.  Trade  and 
science  in  their  work  have  confirmed  a  fact  long 
ago  proclaimed  but  dimly  seen  in  the  past,  that 
God  "  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for 
to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth."  "We  are 
realizing  as  never  before  the  brotherhood  of  hu- 
manity, the  solidarity  of  the  race.  No  nation  can 
live  unto  itself.  It  is  in  the  midst  of  such  condi- 
tions that  we,  as  a  Church,  stand.  What  are  the  op- 
portunities and  what  is  the  duty,  of  the  hour  ?  We 
must  not  arrogantly  claim  for  ourselves  a  supreme 
position  in  the  Church  Universal,  nor  assume  to 
direct  and  discharge  all  its  ministries.  We  are  only 
a  part  of  it,  a  branch  raised  up  as  we  believe  for  a 
special  service ;  and  our  history  ought  to  interpret, 
at  least  in  part,  our  special  mission.  There  ought 
to  be  that  in  it  which  justifies  our  separate  and  dis- 
tinct organization,  and  warrants  its  continuance. 
If  not,  it  is  high  time  that  we  should  abandon  our 


234  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

claims  and  move  for  a  dissolution.  But  we  are 
not  in  doubt,  nor  do  we  come  to  the  present  hour 
dismayed,  distracted,  and  uncertain,  as  to  our  mis- 
sion. One  fact  is  evident  beyond  dispute ;  the 
Presbyterian  Church  has  borne  steadfast  and  un- 
compromising witness  to  the  truth  as  we  have 
found  it  in  the  word  of  God.  She  has  been  dis- 
tinguished as  a  doctrinal  Church.  She  has  fear- 
lessly written  out  her  creed,  large  and  full,  that 
there  might  be  no  misunderstanding  of  her  testi- 
mony ;  and  she  has  maintained  it  at  no  small 
sacrifice.  Discarding  forms  and  rituals  as  of  little 
value,  and  utterly  rejecting  the  commandments  and 
traditions  of  men,  she  has  sought  to  set  forth  the 
doctrines  taught  in  Holy  Scripture.  Whether  her 
creed  is  the  best  that  can  be  written,  is  not  now  the 
question ;  but  this  much  is  certain,  that  among  all 
the  branches  of  the  Church  of  Christ  she  has  in- 
sisted most  strenuously  upon  the  supreme  authority 
of  the  word  of  God,  and  has  given  to  the  world  the 
most  complete  and  orderly  statement  of  its  doc- 
trines. Kemembering  the  words  of  the  great  Head 
of  the  Church,  that  he  came  into  the  world  to  bear 
witness  to  the  truth,  she  believes  that  one  of  the 
first  duties  of  the  Church  is  to  teach  men  the 
testimony  of  Jesus  Christ,  and,  with  this  conviction 
unchanged,  she  faces  the  world  of  the  twentieth 
century.  It  is  admitted  that  it  is  a  time  of  rest- 
lessness, changing  opinions,  and  unsettled  beliefs. 
Multitudes,  some  with  eagerness  and  some  with  the 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  235 

accents  of  despair,  are  saying,  "Who  will  show  us 
any  good?"    But  what  is  all  this  but  an  oppor- 
tunity to  witness  for  the  truth !    It  is  no  time  for 
silence,  or  for  the  casting  away  of  sound  doctrine, 
or  for  setting  our  sails  to  catch  some  breeze  of 
popular  favor.     This  confusion,  this  multiplication 
of    fantastic    notions  in  religion,   this  testing  of 
creeds,  is  in  one  sense  not  an  evil  sign.     Better  this 
than  apathy,  or  the  complacent  and  unreasoning 
deadness  of  a  superficial  orthodoxy.     John  Milton 
said,  "Where  there  is  much  desire  to  learn,  there 
of  necessity  will  be  much  arguing,  much  writing, 
many  opinions ;   for  opinion  in  good  men  is  but 
knowledge  in  the  making."     In  a  time  of  confusion 
and  doubt  we  need  most  of  all  to  hear  the  voice  of 
certainty;    the  clear,  strong,  and  conscience-com- 
pelling accent  of  the  truth.    The  Church  of  Rome, 
ever  on  the  alert,  has  sought  to  supply  this  need 
with  her  doctrine  of  papal  infallibility.     Have  we 
any  testimony  to  make  ?    If  so,  now  is  the  hour  to 
speak.     Let  us  not  mislead  ourselves  with  the  cry 
"  work,  work,"  and  then  in  some  quiet  peaceful  day 
settle  our  beliefs.     No!   the  truth  first,  and  the 
truth  always.     It  is  the  instrument  by  which  we 
must  work,  the  sword  by  which  we  must  conquer. 
The  Church  that  the  twentieth  century  needs,  the 
one    that    is    to    be    foremost    in  controlling   its 
destinies,  is  the  one  that  shall  have  the  purest  and 
plainest  scriptural  creed,  and  that  will  fearlessly 
and  honestly  preach  it. 


236  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

I  have  said  that  our  Church  has  been  character- 
ized in  the  past  as  doctrinal,  and  this  feature  has 
been  no  small  part  of  her  strength  and  glory. 
Whatever  truth  we  possess  we  must  keep  to  the 
end.  But  if  we  have  made  any  new  discoveries  of 
truth  in  the  inexhaustible  word  of  God,  if  we  have 
obtained  any  broader  and  clearer  views  of  divine 
teaching,  it  is  equally  our  duty  to  proclaim  that  to 
the  world.  As  faithful  witnesses  for  Christ  we 
must  tell  the  whole  truth  as  we  know  it,  and  in  its 
right  relations.  Furthermore  that  truth  must  be 
expressed  in  adaptation  to  the  needs  of  the  times. 
There  is  no  need  to  change  our  testimony  in  order 
to  please  men ;  that  would  be  to  betray  the  truth  ; 
but  change  in  form  is  often  required  to  meet  the 
needs  of  men  and  of  the  times. 

Man's  sin  determined  the  form  in  which  divine 
grace  was  revealed,  and  a  sin-ruined  humanity  was 
the  mold  in  which  gospel  redemption  was  cast. 
Just  so  credal  statements,  if  they  are  to  be  service- 
able, must  be  framed  in  view  of  the  needs  and  con- 
ditions of  the  times.  The  alignment  of  truth  must 
change  in  its  advancing  warfare.  The  doctrines 
placed  in  the  forefront  at  one  time  are  not  those 
that  ought  to  occupy  that  critical  place  at  another. 
A  creed  is  not  an  unchangeable  product,  and,  when 
it  would  take  the  place  of  the  unchangeable  word 
of  God,  when  scholastic  theology  would  make  a 
palimpsest  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  prevent  further 
light  breaking  forth  from  its  pages,  it  is  high  time 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  237 

for  the  Church  to  awake  and  to  assert  its  freedom 
under  its  ancient  charter.  For  myself,  I  hold  that 
we  have  no  reason  to  abandon  the  venerable  Con- 
fession of  Faith  made  by  our  fathers,  but  the  rather 
to  write  it  larger  and  clearer.  By  God's  grace  we 
know  something  they  did  not,  or  at  least  did  not 
clearly  express.  A  growing  Church  will  not  be 
marked  by  a  shriveling  creed,  nor  by  one  that  in- 
cludes only  the  alphabet  of  the  Christian  faith  ;  but 
by  a  larger  and  growing  testimony  to  the  truth. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  the  development  of  doctrine 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  Church.  Change  may 
be  made  from  greatness  to  littleness ;  but  there  is 
also  a  change  from  glory  unto  glory,  which  it  is  our 
privilege  to  make  through  the  Spirit  of  God. 

As  American  citizens,  we  have  a  banner  which 
none  of  us  would  ever  wish  to  see  changed.  Its 
colors  were  caught  from  the  pure  heavens  above 
us ;  it  is  associated  with  all  that  is  glorious  in  our 
country's  history.  It  is  the  emblem  of  liberty, 
law  and  human  brotherhood,  the  world  over.  It 
is  the  visible  creed  of  the  rights  of  man.  It  pro- 
claims the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  the  reign  of  a 
Christian  democracy.  The  sight  of  it  thrills  our 
pulses,  and  sets  our  hearts  to  beating  with  emotions 
of  loftiest  patriotism.  Under  its  folds  we  have 
liberty,  peace,  and  security ;  and  palsied  be  the  hand 
that  would  erase  from  it  a  single  stripe  or  star. 
Yet  could  some  patriot  who  helped  to  carry  it  from 
Boston  to  Yorktown  now  look  upon  it,  he  would 


238  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

say,  "It  is  the  same  dear  old  flag,  but  I  see  that 
it  has  changed !  The  field,  the  field  is  not  the 
same  !  "  Yes,  truly  ;  there  is  more  of  heaven's  con- 
stellations in  it,  a  greater  splendor  of  the  stars.  It 
tells  of  a  wider  sovereignty,  of  new  conquests,  and 
of  increased  multitudes  gathered  under  its  protect- 
ing folds.  It  is  the  old  banner  of  the  past  and  yet 
it  tells  of  progress.  So  let  it  be  with  that  old  blue 
banner  which  symbolizes  our  faith,  the  banner  of 
the  covenant  theology.  Let  it  be  unchanged,  yet 
changed ;  let  there  be  more  of  heaven's  grace  in  it, 
a  brighter  luster  of  holy  truth,  a  wider  sweep  of  its 
folds,  and  then  let  us  bear  it  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  for  a  testimony  unto  Christ  our  Lord. 

But  we  owe  also  the  duty  of  service.  That  this 
duty  inheres  in  the  very  nature  of  the  Church  needs 
no  argument  in  a  presence  like  this.  Our  Lord 
came  "  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister, 
and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many  " ;  and  his 
ministry,  if  we  are  true  to  him,  is  to  be  perpetuated 
by  us.  It  is  also  so  clearly  defined  that  no  one  who 
reads  the  gospel  with  an  open  mind  need  misunder- 
stand it.  That  gospel  bids  us  feed  the  hungry, 
clothe  the  naked,  minister  to  the  sick,  befriend  the 
poor,  and  lift  up  the  fallen.  It  teaches  us  to  regard 
the  temporal  welfare  of  men  and  to  seek  the  good 
of  society.  It  lays  its  hand  upon  all  human  rela- 
tions and  pursuits  to  purify  and  ennoble  them. 
What  is  called  civilization  is,  in  its  last  analysis,  ap- 
plied religion;   and  the  nature  of  the  religion  de- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  239 

termines  the  nature  of  the  civilization.  But  beyond 
this  and  superior  to  it,  is  the  ministry  of  the  gospel 
with  reference  to  the  higher,  the  spiritual  and  eter- 
nal interests  of  men.  Its  effects  in  what  is  called 
Christian  civilization,  manifold  and  beneficent  as 
they  are,  are  only  its  by-products.  It  seeks  as  its 
chief  end  the  redemption  of  man  from  sin  and  his 
exaltation  as  a  child  of  God  to  eternal  glory.  For 
this  sublime  and  world — embracing  service,  God  has 
endowed  his  Church  not  only  with  the  supernatural 
and  all-essential  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  his 
written  word  of  truth,  but  also  with  subordinate 
and  personal  gifts  such  as  mental  endowments,  in- 
telligence, scientific  knowledge,  Avealth,  and  inven- 
tions. In  one  respect  the  Church  is  no  stronger 
now  than  it  was  in  the  first  century,  when  a  little 
company  of  disciples  went  forth  to  conquer  the 
world  with  no  other  endowment  than  the  might  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  simple  gospel  message ; 
and  these  must  ever  be  the  secret  of  her  strength. 
Forgetting  them,  and  relying  on  her  numbers,  her 
wealth,  her  institutions,  and  her  intelligence,  she  is 
destined  to  disastrous  defeat.  But  God  has  been 
pleased  to  grant  additional  gifts  for  the  ministry  of 
healing  and  helpfulness  to  men ;  gifts  which  are 
better  in  their  use  than  those  miraculous  ones 
which  characterized  the  apostolic  age.  The  wonder- 
worker is  not  necessarily  a  better  man  through  the 
exercise  of  miraculous  power.  Our  Lord  has  told 
us  that  many  shall  say  unto  him  at  the  last  day, 


240  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

"  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  cast  out  devils  in  thy 
name,  and  in  thy  name  done  many  wonderful 
works  ?  "  To  whom  he  shall  say,  "  I  never  knew 
you."  But  the  man  who  consecrates  and  uses  his 
gifts  of  intelligence  or  wealth,  or  power  to  the 
service  of  Christ  is  by  that  very  ministry  made  a 
better  man.  Such  service  demands  self-sacrifice 
and  that  is  the  royal  way  to  advancement. 

Let  us  then  consider  the  condition  of  our  Church 
with  reference  to  these  special  endowments.  "What 
a  contrast  between  our  position  to-day  and  that  of 
our  fathers  who  met  in  this  city  a  little  over  one 
hundred  years  ago  I  They  were  few  in  numbers, 
we  are  many;  they  were  weak  in  earthly  re- 
sources, we  are  strong;  they  were  poor,  we  are 
rich ;  they  were  limited  in  their  opportunities, 
ours  are  boundless  and  open  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  Their  facilities  for  labor  were  few,  ours  are 
great  and  multiplied  :  books,  schools,  colleges,  print- 
ing presses,  organized  institutions,  travel  made 
easy,  time  and  space  conquered,  all  that  science  has 
discovered,  powers  of  nature  waiting  like  swift  and 
mighty  angels  to  do  our  bidding — all  these  are  at 
our  service.  Such  is  our  endowment,  as  we  stand, 
at  the  threshold  of  the  new  century,  and  surely  it 
does  not  require  the  wisdom  of  a  sage,  or  the  fore- 
sight of  a  prophet,  to  interpret  its  significance.  We 
must  remember  the  peril  as  well  as  the  greatness  of 
our  position.  History  shows  us  how  nations  have 
advanced  to  a  high  degree  of  civilization,  power 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  241 

and  wealth,  and  then,  their  meridian  passed,  began 
to  decline,  and  at  last  perished  in  dishonor.  It  is 
usually  said  that  wealth  and  luxury  destroyed 
them ;  but  the  deeper  reason  is,  that  they  were 
faithless  to  the  divine  law  of  true  progress.  Not 
their  wealth  and  power,  but  their  selfishness,  led  to 
their  decline.  Unwilling  to  share  with  others  their 
high  privileges,  they  lost  the  power  which  makes  a 
nation  great,  and  which  extends  and  perpetuates  its 
life.  The  same  law  applies  to  the  Church.  There 
is  a  notable  illustration  of  it  in  the  history  of 
Israel.  They  were  raised  up  and  richly  dowered, 
not  for  their  own  sakes,  or  that  they  might  hold  a 
monopoly  of  special  blessings,  but  for  the  sake  of 
others.  Through  them  all  nations  were  to  be 
blessed.  But  they  became  exclusive,  selfish,  glory- 
ing in  themselves  and  despising  others.  Forgetful 
of  their  high  mission,  their  strength  and  glory 
passed  from  them,  and  others  were  called  to  take 
their  place.  So  will  it  be  with  us  as  a  Church,  if  we 
fail  to  have  a  sincere  and  heart-controlling  interest 
in  the  great  mission  to  which  Christ  has  called  us. 
A  selfish  Church  glorying  in  its  own  greatness  is 
already  under  a  curse.  The  moment  we  begin  to 
boast  of  ourselves  as  the  elect  of  God  and  forget 
others,  that  moment  our  decline  begins.  The 
enormous  wealth  of  the  present  time  in  which  our 
Church  has  so  large  a  share,  and  the  very  civiliza- 
tion which  the  gospel  has  helped  to  create  un- 
doubtedly have  brought  with  them  corresponding 

16 


242  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

perils ;  but  the  way  of  escape  for  us  is  not  to 
renounce  wealth,  and  to  lead  society  in  the  name  of 
Christianity  back  into  primitive  conditions  and  the 
limitations  of  poverty,  but  the  rather  by  increased 
consecration  to  Christ  and  more  unselfish  living,  to 
use  all  our  abundance  for  the  establishment  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth. 

As  to  our  opportunities,  they  are  so  manifest  that 
he  must  be  blind  indeed  who  cannot  see  them. 
But  why  should  I  weary  you  with  a  list  of  things 
to  be  done  ?  "Who  does  not  know  that  advances 
and  achievements  are  possible  to  the  Church  now, 
which  were  not  so  a  hundred  years  ago,  nor  even 
at  any  previous  time  since  the  Christian  centuries 
began.  The  highways  are  prepared,  every  barrier 
is  thrown  down,  every  heathen  nation  on  the  globe 
is  open  to  the  labors  of  the  Christian  missionary. 
How  significant  in  this  respect  is  the  condition  of 
China,  representing  one  quarter  of  the  population 
of  the  whole  world.  Her  swarming  multitudes  are 
stirred  as  never  before.  They  are  angry,  enraged, 
humiliated,  despairing,  longing,  but  they  are  think- 
ing and  that  means  much  for  the  future.  It  is 
God's  ploughing  time  there,  and  now  is  our  oppor- 
tunity to  cast  the  seed.  How  mistakenly  do  those 
read  the  history  of  God's  dealings  in  the  past  who 
tell  us  that,  since  our  missionaries  have  been  mur- 
dered, and  thousands  of  Christian  converts  have  bap- 
tized the  soil  of  China  with  their  blood,  since  our 
mission  stations  have  been  burned   with   fire  and 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  243 

the  labor  of  years  has  disappeared,  since  foreign 
aggression  has  aroused  the  hatred  of  the  people  and 
stirred  up  their  prejudices  to  an  unwonted  degree 
of  violence,  our  opportunity  for  the  evangelization 
of  China  for  the  present  at  least  is  lost.  Was  it  so 
in  Syria,  when  the  infant  Church  at  Jerusalem  was 
scattered  abroad  by  persecution  ;  and  when  bigotry, 
hate,  and  malice,  pursued  them  to  distant  cities  ? 
"Was  it  so  in  the  Koman  Empire  when  the  power  of 
the  emperors  and  the  prejudices  and  fanaticism  of 
the  populace  were  united  to  crush  the  Church  ? 
Did  she  then,  while  her  martyrs  were  dying  by  the 
thousands  in  the  arena,  lose  her  opportunity  to 
conquer  Home  ?  "Was  it  so  in  India  when  the 
storm  of  revolt  and  religious  fanaticism  swept  over 
it  like  a  tropical  hurricane,  and  left  our  mission 
stations  in  ruins  ?  Were  the  gates  of  opportunity 
closed  there  because  of  the  martyrdom  of  some  of 
the  noblest  of  our  missionaries  ? 

What  do  our  missionaries,  who  having  passed 
through  their  baptism  of  fire  and  blood  still  live, 
say  with  reference  to  the  outlook  in  China  ?  Do 
they  proclaim  the  cause  lost  and  stand  terrified 
and  unnerved  saying,  "  Send  us  where  you  will  but 
do  not  bid  us  return  to  a  hopeless  field  to  labor 
in  face  of  obstacles  that  can  not  be  overcome  "  ? 
They  have  suffered  much  from  the  revilings  and 
slanders  of  those  who  call  themselves  Christians, 
but  no  one  yet  has  dared  to  dishonor  them  by 
putting  such  words  on  their  lips. 


244  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

Equally  significant  in  opportunity,  is  what  is 
called  our  home  field.  In  the  mysterious  provi- 
dence of  God,  possessions  undreamed  of  have  come 
under  the  sovereignty  of  the  Republic ;  and,  what- 
ever our  courts  may  decide  with  reference  to  the 
constitution  following  the  flag,  one  thing  is  cer- 
tain, the  gospel  must  go  with  it  if  our  free  institu- 
tions are  to  be  successfully  planted  among  the  sub- 
ject races.  Without  it  no  laws,  no  constitution,  can 
lift  them  up  into  the  high  state  of  freemen.  As  a 
Christian  people  we  are  especially  under  obligation 
to  give  to  those  who  have  come  under  our  care  the 
very  best  that  we  possess,  and  woe  be  to  us  if  we 
fail  in  our  duty.  "We  must  gird  ourselves  for  the 
work  of  a  true  expansion,  or  else  what  we  have 
gained  by  the  sword  will  result  in  our  shame  and 
ruin.  All  branches  of  the  Church  in  America 
have  an  interest  in  this  work,  but  upon  no  one  is 
the  obligation  more  distinct  and  imperative  than 
upon  us  as  Presbyterians. 

Ours,  historically,  is  the  established  Church  of 
the  Eepublic,  established  not  by  but  in  her  laws, 
her  constitution,  and  her  form  of  government. 
The  genius  of  Presbyterianism  is  the  genius  of  Re- 
publicanism. The  ideal  social  state,  the  democracy 
of  the  future  will  not  be  one  ruled  by  a  hierarchy, 
but  one  in  which  all  are  kings  and  priests  unto  God. 

But  no  view  of  our  position  as  a  Church  at  this 
critical  time  would  be  complete  if  it  did  not  embrace 
our  relations  to  men  and  society  in  our  native  land. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  245 

Here  in  this  land  of  ours,  which  God  in  his  provi- 
dence has  so  strangely  exalted  and  placed  in  the 
forefront  among  the  nations,  are  to  be  solved  the 
problems  that  vitally  concern  the  advancement  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  ;  and  here  we  must  find  our 
opportunities  for  highest  service.  Opportunities 
are  the  angels  that  wait  on  duty.  Sometimes  they 
come  clothed  with  such  splendor  and  beauty  that 
we  are  eager  to  follow  them.  Again,  they  come  in 
plain  everyday  garb  so  that  we  scarcely  heed 
them  ;  and  still  again  they  come  in  such  dread  array 
that  they  terrify  us  and  we  are  ready  to  flee.  They 
are  robed  as  perils,  they  seem  to  threaten  us,  and 
we  call  them  dangers.  "We  must  distinguish  be- 
tween our  facilities  and  our  opportunities.  The 
physician's  instruments,  his  medicines,  and  his  skill, 
are  his  facilities  ;  but  when  the  plague  comes  with 
its  terrors,  and  the  sick  and  the  suffering  lie  in  his 
pathway,  there  is  his  opportunity.  Discipline,  alert- 
ness of  movement,  and  improved  weapons,  are  an 
army's  facilities  ;  but  when  the  foe  with  uplifted 
banners  and  advancing  columns  confronts  it,  there 
is  its  opportunity.  So  with  us;  what  are  called 
perils  to  society  are  in  a  true  sense  our  opportuni- 
ties. The  perils  of  wealth  and  of  the  slums,  of  grow- 
ing vice,  immorality,  ignorance  and  superstition, 
of  anarchy  and  discontent  among  the  poor,  and 
greed  among  the  rich,  of  an  education  that  is 
godless,  and  of  a  gross  materialism  that  is  blind  to 
the  real  good  of  life, — all  these  are  manifest.     They 


246  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

threaten  us,  and  they  must  be  met  and  overcome  if 
the  new  century  is  to  mark  an  advance  for 
humanity.  We  are  beginning  to  see  as  never  be- 
fore that  the  gospel  has  something  to  do  with 
society,  and  that  if  it  cannot  be  eyes  to  the  blind, 
help  to  the  needy,  protection  to  the  oppressed,  and 
bring  peace  and  comfort  to  all  men  here,  it  will 
not  commend  itself  to  them  as  having  the  promise 
of  the  life  which  is  to  come.  For  this  work  we 
have  as  a  Church,  a  richness  of  facilities  in  organi- 
zation, wealth,  knowledge,  numbers,  and  position  ; 
but  are  we  alive  to  our  opportunities  ?  Have  we 
not  been  more  content  with  our  privileges  than  we 
have  been  eager  to  minister  to  others  ?  The  masses 
of  the  people,  and  especially  the  world  of  labor 
estranged  from  our  Church,  misunderstanding  us, 
and  misled  by  a  Christless  gospel,  proclaim  that 
something  is  wrong.  Serious  thinkers  are  be- 
ginning to  realize  that  there  must  be  some  new 
adjustment  or  adaptation  of  our  Christian  forces, 
or,  at  least,  that  a  new  enthusiasm  for  service  must 
be  awakened  among  us,  or  we  will  be  left  in 
the  rear,  and  others  will  be  called  of  God  to  take 
our  place  and  win  the  crown  of  the  overcomers. 
Between  atheistic  anarchism  on  one  side,  which  is 
individualism  gone  mad,  and  pantheistic  communism 
on  the  other,  which  would  rob  the  individual  of  his 
rights  and  merge  all  into  a  common  life,  a  Church 
like  ours  should  stand  witnessing  to  the  true  and 
divine  order  of  society.     She  should  proclaim,  as  she 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  247 

has  done  in  the  past,  the  sacredness  of  the  individ- 
ual and  his  freedom  under  God,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  brotherhood  of  men  and  their  equality  as 
the  children  of  God.  But  to  do  this  she  must  like 
her  Lord,  be  willing  to  live  with  the  poor  and  to 
gain  their  confidence  by  her  unselfish  services.  If 
other  Churches  build  Christian  schools  and  colleges 
and  universities,  erect  hospitals  and  asylums,  send 
missionaries  and  deaconesses  to  the  destitute  and 
lowly,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor,  while  we 
stand  idly  by  boasting  of  our  past,  to  them  will  be 
given  the  glory  of  saving  our  land  for  Christ ;  while 
upon  us  will  be  the  curse  of  Meroz.  We  may  well 
dread  for  ourselves  that  conservatism  of  material 
prosperity  which  chills  sympathy  and  benumbs  the 
conscience. 

In  the  last  century  we  yielded,  to  our  hurt,  to  the 
blighting  influences  of  human  slavery.  Now  the 
commercialism  of  the  age  threatens  and  infects  us. 

We  must  get  rid  of  it,  and  in  the  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice  and  self-denial  go  out  to  serve  our  fellow- 
men.  Let  us  remember  that  in  all  the  past  the 
Church  has  conquered  by  her  martyrs,  and  not  by 
her  millionaires.  Her  prayers,  tears,  and  sacrifices, 
have  been  her  power. 

We  are  tempted  at  an  hour  like  this,  to  engage  in 
prevision ;  or  at  least  to  dream  of  what  the  new 
century  will  bring  to  the  race.  But  the  curtain 
that  hides  the  future  will  not  rise  at  our  bidding. 
This  much  however  we  know,  for  it  is  the  assurance 


248  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

which  the  cherished  faith  of  our  Church  brings  us  ; 
God's  eternal  purpose  in  Christ  Jesus  runs  through 
the  ages,  and  history  is  the  revelation  of  it.  It  can- 
not be  defeated.  This  century,  like  those  which 
preceded  it,  will  help  to  carry  us  on  to  the  glorious 
consummation.  The  position  which  we  occupy  in 
this  age-long  movement  is  a  most  solemn  and  re- 
sponsible one.  We  are  the  heirs  of  the  past. 
Apostles,  martyrs,  confessors,  saintly  men  and 
women  who  have  toiled  for  the  salvation  of  others, 
and  who  have  borne  heroic  witness  to  the  truth, 
intrust  their  gains  to  us  to  transmit  them  to  the 
future.  It  is  given  to  us  by  our  indifference  to 
retard,  or  by  our  fidelity  to  hasten,  the  coming  of 
our  Lord.  Certainly  it  is  no  time  for  discourage- 
ment or  lamentation.  Jesus  Christ  was  an  optimist 
with  regard  to  his  work.  With  a  world  in  dark- 
ness round  him,  with  a  Church  that  would  not 
receive  him,  with  few  followers,  and  one  of  them  a 
traitor,  with  the  shameful  death  of  the  cross  before 
him,  and  the  powers  of  darkness  assailing  him,  he 
said,  "  this  gospel  of  mine  shall  be  preached  among 
all  nations  for  a  witness  unto  them."  "  Heaven  and 
earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my  words  shall  not  pass 
away."  In  view  of  all  that  has  occurred  since  then, 
and  of  the  outlook  given  to  us  in  the  dawning  of  the 
twentieth  century,  can  any  one  of  his  followers  be 
pessimistic  ?  Nay,  rather  let  us  shout  in  the  as- 
surance of  hope,  and  gird  ourselves  for  the  service 
that  awaits  us.     We  need  to  be  more  hopeful,  more 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  249 

confident,  and  more  enthusiastic,  for  we  follow  a 
leader  who  knows  no  defeat.  Let  us  here,  round 
the  ancient  altars  of  our  faith,  be  anointed  afresh 
for  our  work. 

"Ours  the  needed  Truth  to  speak, 
Eight  the  wrong  and  raise  the  weak  ; 
Ours  to  make  earth's  desert  glad, 
In  its  Eden  greenness  clad  ; 
Ours  to  work  as  well  as  pray, 
Clearing  thorny  wrongs  away, 
Plucking  up  the  weeds  of  sin, 
Letting  Heaven's  warm  sunshine  in  ; 
Watching  on  the  hills  of  Faith, 
Listening  what  the  Spirit  saith  ; 
Catching  gleams  from  temple-spires, 
Hearing  notes  from  angel  choirs  ; 
Like  the  seer  of  Patmos  gazing, 
On  the  glory  downward  blazing  ; 
Till,  upon  earth's  grateful  sod, 
Bests  the  city  of  our  God." 


"FELLOW-WORKERS    UNTO    THE 
KINGDOM  OF  GOD" 

Colossians  4  :  11. 


SEEMON   BY  THE 

Rev.  CHARLES  ANDREWS  DICKEY,  D.  D., 

Retiring  Moderator 


"FELLOW-WORKERS  UNTO  THE  KINGDOM 
OF  GOD  " 

COLOSSIANS    4:11. 
SEEMON  BY  THE 

Rev.  CHARLES  ANDREWS  DICKEY,  D.  D., 

Retibing  Modeeatoe 


In  this  letter  to  the  Colossians  Paul  identifies 
the  redeemed  Church  with  the  promised  kingdom 
of  God. 

"  The  saints  and  faithful  brethren  in  Christ  which 
are  at  Colosse,"  are  to  be  delivered  from  the 
power  of  darkness,  and  to  be  translated  into  the 
kingdom  of  God's  dear  Son.  These  heirs  of  the 
kingdom  are  described  as  those  who  have  redemp- 
tion and  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  through  the  blood 
of  the  first-born  Son,  and  image  of  the  invisible 
God,  creator  of  all  things,  including  all  thrones,  and 
all  dominions,  and  all  principalities,  and  all  powers. 
And  the  crowning  glory,  the  chief  expression  of  the 
preeminence  of  Christ,  is  declared  to  be  that  he  is 
"  the  head  of  the  body,"  and  that  the  body  is  the 
redeemed  Church. 

Making  mention  of  other  churches  to  which  he 

253 


254  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

had  ministered,  and  of  other  ministers  who  had 
shared  his  labors,  Paul,  with  the  redeemed  Church 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  closely  associated  in  his 
thought  and  service,  says,  These  are  "  fellow- workers 
unto  [or  toward]  the  kingdom  of  God." 

It  has  seemed  to  me  fitting  to  address  you,  the 
representatives  of  the  Church,  as  "  fellow-workers 
unto  the  kingdom  of  God."  Let  us  make  the  king- 
dom of  God  our  meditation  and  confer  together 
about  the  service  which  we  may  render  to  realize 
the  King's  wish  that  the  kingdom  may  come. 

The  kingdom  of  God  occupies  a  prominent  place 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  spirit  of  all  history, 
and  more  especially  of  sacred  history,  is  the  testi- 
mony of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  Bible  is  the 
handbook  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  Men  are  only 
mentioned,  and  events  are  only  recorded,  because  of 
their  connection  with  the  kingdom  of  God.  The 
songs  that  make  the  Bible  a  poem  and  an  anthem 
of  triumph,  the  prayers  that  express  the  longings  of 
souls  and  the  reverence  of  faith,  the  dreams  and 
visions  that  spread  their  supernatural  light  from 
Abraham's  tent  door  to  the  retirement  of  Arabia, 
and  from  Jacob's  pillow  of  stone  to  the  solitude  of 
Patmos,  the  mountain  of  fire  that  lighted  the 
wilderness,  the  dazzling  ritual  that  prefigured  the 
Cross,  the  anthem  of  angels  that  announced  the 
Advent,  the  tragedy  of  Calvary  that  consummated 
the  Atonement,  and  the  Easter  dawn  that  confirmed 
the  revelation  and  redemption  of  the  kingdom  of 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  255 

God,  these  together  make  the  Holy  Scripture  the 
constitution,  the  revelation,  and  the  history  of  a 
kingdom  which  has  its  beginning  in  the  eternal 
purposes  of  a  sovereign  God,  and  we  have  the  as- 
surance of  God  that  when  the  kingdom  has  been 
finally  established,  it  shall  never  end. 

The  record  of  Christ's  ministry,  the  most  of  his 
discourses  and  pictures,  and  every  event  of  his  life, 
from  his  humble  birth  and  the  adoration  of  kings, 
to  the  departure  from  Olivet,  under  the  escort  of 
angels,  and  back  to  abandoned  glory  to  complete 
the  gift  of  the  kingdom  to  the  Father,  all  this  is 
the  testimony  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

When  the  amazed  apostles  turned  their  faces 
from  the  cloud  that  carried  away  their  King,  and 
in  obedience  to  his  command  began  the  subjugation 
of  the  world  to  his  scepter,  they  proclaimed  the 
promise  of  the  King's  return  to  be  crowned  by  the 
universe  of  God,  as  "  Lord  of  all." 

Bible  students  have  given  great  prominence  to 
the  study  of  this  kingdom,  which  occupies  so  con- 
spicuous a  place  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  recent 
study  has  been  devoted  with  great  diligence  to  this 
subject.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  contribute  anything 
unfamiliar,  but  this  kingdom  of  God  seemed  an  ap- 
propriate theme  for  this  significant  time.  We  are 
looking  backward  to  discover  possible  progress,  and 
we  are  looking  forward  to  gain  inspiration  for  bet- 
ter service,  and  therefore,  charged  with  a  divine 
commission,  entrusted  with  the  Word  that  contains 


256  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

our  orders  and  reveals  the  "  great  mystery  concern- 
ing Christ  and  the  Church,"  I  thought  it  fitting  to 
present  for  your  consideration  this  theme  of  revela- 
tion, and  to  address  you  as  "  fellow-workers  unto 
the  kingdom  of  God." 

The  kingdom  of  God  may  be  considered  in  four 
general  aspects.  First,  as  the  revelation  of  an 
eternal  plan  and  purpose  of  God,  by  whose  power 
and  for  whose  glory  all  things  exist. 

Second,  as  retarded  by  the  unwillingness  of 
those  who  should  be  the  subjects  of  this  supreme 
and  rightful  Euler. 

Third,  as  redeemed  from  sin  by  a  plan  of  love 
and  grace,  devised  and  executed  by  the  offended 
Sovereign;  and,  finally,  the  kingdom  restored, 
triumphantly  established  over  all  resistance,  the 
blessedness  of  its  subjects,  and  the  glory  of  its  King. 

This  kingdom,  the  primary  purpose  of  which  is 
the  glory  and  praise  of  God,  has  its  existence,  abso- 
lutely, in  the  will  of  God  and  by  the  decree  and 
power  of  God.  David's  prayer  on  the  occasion  of 
giving  up  his  throne  to  Solomon,  fully  expresses 
this  sovereign  sway  of  God. 

"  Thine,  O  Lord,  is  the  greatness,  and  the  power, 
and  the  glory,  and  the  victory,  and  the  majesty : 
for  all  that  is  in  the  heaven  and  in  the  earth  is 
thine ;  thine  is  the  kingdom,  O  Lord,  and  thou  art 
exalted  as  head  above  all. 

"  Both  riches  and  honor  come  of  thee,  and  thou 
reignest  over  all ;  and  in  thine  hand  is  power  and 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  257 

might ;  and  in  thine  hand  it  is  to  make  great,  and 
to  give  strength  unto  all.  Now  therefore,  our  God, 
we  thank  thee,  and  praise  thy  glorious  name." 

The  Psalms  abound  in  such  confession  and  praise. 

"  The  kingdom  is  the  Lord's  :  and  he  is  the  gov- 
ernor among  the  nations." 

"  The  Lord  hath  prepared  his  throne  in  the 
heavens;  and  his  kingdom  ruleth  over  all." 

For  any  creature  to  dispute  the  authority  of  God 
is  treason,  and  to  refuse  obedience  and  willing  serv- 
ice is  rebellion.  Therefore,  to  comprehend  the  na- 
ture of  the  divine  kingdom  and  the  relation  of 
all  other  beings  to  the  Supreme  Being,  we  must 
observe  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  rooted  and 
grounded  in  creation.  God's  right  to  rule  is  founded 
on  his  relation  to  all  things  as  their  Creator.  Every- 
thing must  be  subservient  to  the  will  of  its  maker. 
Everything  that  the  omnipotence  of  God  makes 
possible,  and  everything  that  the  will  of  God  re- 
gards desirable,  must  be  included  in  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  absolute  dominion  of  God  has  its  foun- 
dation in  the  absolute  ownership  of  God.  To  the 
crown  of  creation,  the  perfect  man,  God  delegated 
dominion  over  the  creatures  beneath  him.  But 
man  lost  his  dominion  by  losing  his  perfection  and 
by  putting  himself  in  opposition  to  the  will  and 
dominion  of  God. 

The  order  of  creation  suggests  the  purpose  of 
God  to  glorify  himself  in  a  kingdom  in  which  man, 
made  in  his  own  image,  after  his  own  likeness, 

17 


258  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

whose  life  was  the  Spirit  of  God,  should  be  the  con- 
spicuous subject.  Having  "  called  light  from  the 
darkness  that  covered  the  face  of  the  deep,"  having 
spread  the  firmament  and  gathered  the  waters,  hav- 
ing given  the  continents  their  form,  having  filled 
the  earth  with  sustenance,  having  lighted  man's 
abode  by  night  and  by  day  and  made  it  fully 
ready  for  his  dominion  and  blessedness,  God  estab- 
lished his  kingdom  and  bade  his  subject  to  occupy 
it  for  his  own  gain  and  blessedness,  and  for  the 
glory  of  his  Creator.  The  only  condition  of  occu- 
pancy was  obedience.  The  will  of  the  sovereign 
and  holy  Creator  must  be  the  law  of  the  sub- 
ject, for  though  a  son  of  God,  bearing  the  image 
of  his  Father,  the  creature  could  have  no  right, 
no  liberty,  not  in  harmony  with  the  will  of  the 
Sovereign  for  whose  glory  the  kingdom  was  es- 
tablished. 

But  just  as  true,  the  sovereign  must  receive  an 
obedience  springing  from  the  full  and  loving  con- 
sent of  his  subjects.  God  could  not  be  satisfied 
with  slaves  for  subjects.  Loyalty  must  spring  from 
love,  the  subjects  must  be  free  and  willing,  and  find 
their  consent  and  obedience  in  perfect  confidence. 
The  Sovereign  set  life  and  death  before  his  subjects 
and  left  them  free  to  choose.  Adam  might  have 
been  the  representative  of  a  race  of  kings,  but  he 
listened  to  the  enemy  of  God,  disobeyed  God,  and 
opened  his  eyes  on  a  flaming  sword  that  closed  the 
gate  of  life ;  and  realized  that  "  sin  had  entered  into 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  259 

the  world  and  death  by  sin,"  and  that  he  repre- 
sented a  race  of  slaves. 

God's  plan  of  love  was  frustrated.  His  guilty 
subject  was  in  rebellion.  Darkness,  deeper  than 
the  chaos  out  of  which  light  had  been  called,  en- 
veloped creation,  and  the  murder  and  corruption, 
and  evil  of  every  sort,  that  hurried  humanity  to 
destruction  and  grieved  a  righteous  God,  thwarted 
the  purpose  of  God  and  his  kingdom  on  earth,  for 
mankind  seemed  a  failure.  The  carnal  mind  be- 
came enmity  against  God,  and  the  wild,  downward 
rush  of  fallen  nature  brought  mankind  to  such  a 
state  that  God,  in  righteous  wrath,  was  compelled 
to  wash  the  polluted  earth  with  a  flood,  reserving  a 
single  family  for  the  preservation  of  his  kingdom. 

In  the  family  of  Noah,  God  kept  his  kingdom  of 
grace,  shortly  to  be  more  plainly  revealed.  When 
God  banished  his  rebellious  subjects  and  closed  the 
gate  of  his  kingdom,  he  gave  them  a  strange 
promise  to  keep  alive  their  hope.  "  The  seed  of  the 
woman  shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head."  It  was  a 
dim  ray  of  light  in  the  darkness,  but  later  revela- 
tions enlarged  and  confirmed  the  promise.  Silent 
centuries  elapsed,  when  suddenly  the  silence  is 
broken  by  the  voice  of  an  offended,  loving,  patient, 
God.  The  crash  of  the  fall  could  not  prevent  the 
plans  and  purposes  of  the  grace  of  God.  In 
eternity,  before  creation  or  fall,  God  devised  a 
scheme  of  grace  by  which  the  kingdom  should  rise 
out  of  the  ruin  of  sin,  and  the  subjects  of  grace  es- 


260  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

cape  the  shadows  of  death.  God  waited  until  his 
new  representative  was  ready  to  receive  his  revela- 
tion of  grace  and  transmit  it  to  the  heirs  of  re- 
demption. Against  the  background  of  many  cen- 
turies of  darkness  stands  the  most  majestic  figure, 
save  the  Son  of  God,  that  appears  in  the  race  that 
God's  grace  would  redeem.  The  son  of  Terah  is 
the  shadow  of  the  Son  of  God.  What  experiences 
and  visions  and  dreams  may  have  filled  the  seventy- 
five  years  of  life  spent  in  his  own  land,  and  among 
his  own  kindred,  we  are  not  told,  but  we  know 
that  when  God  called  Abraham  "  To  go  out  into  a 
place,  which  he  should  after  receive  for  an  inherit- 
ance, he  obeyed,  and  he  went  out,  not  knowing 
whither  he  went."  "  For  he  looked  for  a  city,"  a 
kingdom  "  which  hath  foundations,  whose  builder 
and  maker  is  God." 

The  first  step  of  "  the  friend  of  God  "  manifested 
the  obedience  that  might  have  saved  the  kingdom 
in  creation,  and  the  faith  that  was  to  be  the  condi- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  grace.  The  reverence  of 
the  race  has  confirmed  the  election  of  God,  and  the 
three  religions  which  represent  the  living  God,  and 
confess  his  sovereignty,  honor  alike  the  memory 
and  the  headship  of  Abraham.  By  the  choice  of 
this  one  man,  by  covenant  and  promise,  by  a  trial 
of  faith  that  strangely  suggests  the  Holy  Temple 
and  the  Holy  Cross  by  the  nearness  of  Isaac's  altar 
to  them  both,  by  a  trial  of  faith  that  strangely  sug- 
gests the  Atonement,  God  brings  this  kingdom  of 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  261 

grace,  out  of  the  chaos  of  sin  and  death,  to  be  fore- 
shadowed for  centuries,  but  in  the  fullness  of  time 
to  be  established  on  the  earth  by  the  King  in  person, 
and  to  be  extended  through  a  redeemed  Church 
until  it  represented  universal  empire  and  the  undis- 
puted reign  of  God. 

The  descendants  of  Abraham,  keeping  the  cove- 
nants and  promises,  and  living  in  communion  with 
the  living  God,  who  had  entrusted  his  kingdom  to 
their  keeping,  are  driven  by  want  into  the  bondage 
of  Egypt,  and  by  the  heel  of  oppression,  the  family, 
growing  to  a  nation,  is  hardened  into  a  courage 
that  should  conquer  freedom  and  plant  the  kingdom 
of  God  among  the  kingdoms  of  men. 

While  the  people  grew  by  suffering,  God  was 
training  a  leader  and  a  lawgiver  in  Midian.  Ban- 
ished from  Egypt,  Moses  found  courage  to  return 
and  boldly  proclaim  the  message  of  God  at  Pha- 
raoh's throne.  "  Let  my  people  go  that  they  may 
serve  me."  Kesistance  was  overcome  by  judg- 
ments, the  people  of  God,  who  had  become  a  nation, 
crossed  the  sea  that  buried  their  oppressors  and  met 
their  King  at  Sinai,  ready  to  proclaim  the  laws  of 
the  kingdom  of  God. 

The  Mosaic  period  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is  full 
of  significance  and  suggestion.  It  marks  the  con- 
stitution of  the  kingdom.  The  Supreme  Euler  pro- 
claims the  laws  of  his  kingdom.  The  conditions 
that  make  for  righteousness  are  declared  with  great 
exactness.     The  relations  of  subjects  to  their  Sover- 


262  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

eign,  and  of  subjects  one  with  another,  are  definitely 
fixed  and  guarded  by  laws.  A  code  of  morals  is 
given  which  would  insure  perfection  by  its  complete 
observance.  The  proclamation  of  Sinai  is  a  plain 
declaration  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  a 
kingdom  of  righteousness. 

But  how  is  righteousness  to  be  attained  ?  How 
are  poor,  wayward,  wicked  men  to  please  God  with 
perfect  righteousness?  Does  God  mean  to  mock 
the  hopes  of  struggling  humanity  by  making  im- 
possible conditions  of  entrance  into  his  everlasting 
kingdom  ? 

The  institution  of  the  passover  before  the 
exodus,  and  the  prominence  given  to  the  cere- 
monial law,  answer  the  question  for  the  love  and 
grace  of  God.  The  book  of  the  law  consists  mainly 
of  directions  to  the  Cross,  of  foreshadowings  of  the 
atoning  death,  which  is  to  be  accomplished  as  the 
kingdom  of  God  progresses.  Feasts  and  offerings 
and  sacrifices,  a  tribe  of  priests  to  insure  the  letter 
of  the  law,  these,  set  forth  with  marvelous  minute- 
ness, significantly  proclaimed  at  the  constitution  of 
the  kingdom  that  it  is  a  kingdom  of  grace  and  not 
a  kingdom  of  merit,  a  kingdom  of  faith  and  not  a 
kingdom  of  works.  These  offerings  and  sacrifices, 
in  themselves  of  no  avail,  the  blood  of  which  could 
not  wash  away  sin,  only  suggested  the  blood  of 
sprinkling  that  would  speak  the  better  things, 
promised  and  hoped  for  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Moses  interpreted  the  ceremonial  law  when  he  de- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  263 

clared  "  The  Lord  thy  God  will  raise  up  unto  thee  a 
Prophet  from  the  midst  of  thee,  of  thy  brethren, 
like  unto  me ;  unto  him  ye  shall  hearken." 

Thus  equipped,  Abraham's  family  left  the  wilder- 
ness and,  as  a  chosen  nation,  took  possession  of  the 
promised  land.  The  nation  and  the  Church  were 
one.  The  same  laws  regulated  citizenship  in  the 
nation  and  membership  in  the  Church.  Israel, 
among  surrounding  nations,  was  intended  to  be  the 
leaven  of  the  kingdom  in  the  midst  of  a  lost  hu- 
manity. To  use  a  striking  figure  of  an  eminent 
writer,  "  Israel  was  God's  river  flowing  on  to  make 
the  whole  earth  glad,  and  the  wicked,  worldly 
empires,  through  which  it  flowed,  were  but  stag- 
nant morasses  and  pools."  Defections  and  defeats, 
with  occasional  reforms  and  victories  under  loyal 
leaders,  bring  the  chosen  nation,  the  representative 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  to  face  the  question  of  a 
visible  king.  A  visible  kingdom,  as  it  appeared  to 
Israel,  not  yet  able  to  realize  the  spiritual  character 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  required  a  visible  king.  In 
wrath  God  abdicated  his  throne  and  allowed  Israel 
to  choose  a  king.  The  tragedy  of  Saul  was  the 
calamity  of  Israel.  Then  God  condescended  to 
name  a  man  after  his  own  heart,  and  the  throne 
of  David  was  the  glory  of  Israel  and  the  reign  of 
David  was  the  glory  of  God.  David's  reign  was  a 
prophecy.  David  was  eminently  a  type  of  Christ. 
He  recognized  himself  as  reigning  in  the  stead  of 
his  greater  Son.     The  kingdom  of  God  as  related 


264  TWENTIETH  CENTUM Y  ADDRESSES 

to  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  finds  continual  sug- 
gestion in  the  reign  of  David.  The  Psalmist  of 
Israel  deserves  the  title,  Psalmist  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  In  the  name  of  Christ  he  challenges  all 
enemies  to  oppose  his  kingdom. 

' '  Why  rage  the  heathen,  and  vain  things 

Why  do  the  people  mind  ? 
Kings  of  the  earth  do  set  themselves, 

And  princes  are  combined 
To  plot  against  the  Lord  and  his 

Annointed,  saying  thus, 
Let  us  asunder  break  their  bands, 

And  cast  their  cords  from  us. 
He  that  in  heaven  sits  shall  laugh, 
The  Lord  shall  scorn  them  all. ' ' 

This  deep  vein  of  devotion,  and  loyalty,  and  con- 
fidence regarding  the  triumph  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  runs  through  the  Book  of  Psalms,  and  par- 
ticularly characterizes  those  psalms  which  prophesy 
and  praise  the  Messiah. 

But  the  glory  of  David  departed.  A  divided 
kingdom,  scattered  tribes,  and  bitter  defeats  at  the 
hands  of  enemies,  sadly  retarded  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  failure  of  royalty,  the  impossibility  of 
putting  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  keeping  of 
human  kings,  brought  conditions  which  the  plans 
of  God  met,  with  other  seers  of  the  kingdom  and 
other  seekers  after  God.  The  dynasty  of  prophets 
insured  two  significant  developments.  Not  only 
did  the  prophets  restrain  and  rebuke  kings,  who 
disregarded  the  sovereignty  of  God,  and  the  right- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  265 

eousness  and  blessedness  of  their  subjects,  but  they 
were  given  sight  to  see  the  glory  of  the  coming 
kingdom,  wisdom  to  discern  its  spiritual  character, 
and,  above  all,  an  acquaintance  with  the  holy, 
heavenly  Person  who  was  to  come  and  establish 
the  kingdom,  and  in  and  through  whom  the  king- 
dom was  to  be  revealed  and  finally  triumphantly 
restored. 

When  Israel  wept  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  and 
mourned  the  captivity  that  seemed  the  end  of  hope, 
they  gave  better  heed  to  the  teachings  of  their 
prophets.  Away  from  the  holy  temple  which  they 
reverenced  and  from  the  holy  city  which  kept 
everything  sacred  pertaining  to  the  worship  and 
kingdom  of  God  ;  separated  from  their  rituals  that 
seemed  so  essential  to  acceptance  with  God,  their 
spiritual  sense  was  quickened  by  their  bitter  dis- 
tress, and  they  were  brought  to  realize  the  spiritual 
character  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  In  touch  with 
sad,  lost  men,  who  were  not  Israelites,  they  began 
to  understand  that  the  kingdom  of  God  was  not 
confined  to  Judsea,  but  that  Judaea  was  a  center, 
from  which  it  was  God's  purpose  to  influence  and 
mold  surrounding  nations  and  bring  them,  by  his 
grace,  into  his  eternal  kingdom. 

A  distinguished  writer,  referring  to  the  spiritual 
and  universal  character  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  as 
set  forth  in  the  teachings  of  the  prophets,  says: 
"The  formation  of  a  spiritual  community  in  the 
days  of  the  prophets,  was  a  new  thing  in  the  his- 


266  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

tory  of  religion.  Till  then  no  one  had  dreamed  of 
a  fellowship  of  faith,  disassociated  from  national 
form,  maintained  without  the  exercise  of  ritual 
services,  bound  together  by  faith  in  the  Divine 
Word  alone.  It  was  the  birth  of  the  conception 
of  the  Church,  the  first  step  in  the  emancipation 
of  spiritual  religion  from  the  form  of  political  life." 

Daniel  describes,  with  peculiar  clearness,  the  re- 
lation of  the  kingdom  of  God  to  the  kingdoms  of 
men.  Summoned  by  a  restless  king,  both  to  recall 
and  to  interpret  a  dream  that  had  disturbed  him, 
Daniel,  informed  by  God,  foretold  the  destruction 
of  successive  earthly  kingdoms  and  declared  that 
the  stone  "  cut  out  without  hands,"  which  became 
a  great  mountain  was  the  symbol  of  the  kingdom 
which  the  God  of  heaven  would  set  up,  which  should 
never  be  destroyed,  but  stand  forever. 

With  what  sublime  imagery,  and  how  frequently, 
does  Isaiah  describe  the  triumph  of  Christ  and  the 
Church,  and  the  final  glorious  restoration  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  But  I  would  emphasize  more 
particularly  the  prophetic  association  of  a  suffering 
King  with  the  triumphs  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
The  person  of  Christ,  unique,  alone,  transcendent, 
stands  out  in  prophetic  vision  the  essence  and  center 
and  determining  influence  in  the  establishment  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  "  The  testimony  of  Jesus  is 
the  spirit  of  prophecy."  The  consciousness  of  the 
redemption  of  the  kingdom  by  the  life  of  the  King, 
is  more  or  less  apparent  in  every  prophetic  utter- 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  267 

ance  concerning  the  kingdom  and  the  King.  The 
strange  dual  nature,  that  comes  nearer,  but  remains 
a  mystery,  in  the  gospels,  is  the  continued  theme  of 
prophecy.  In  this  dual  nature,  the  King  and  the 
subject  mysteriously  meet.  "  What  the  law  could 
not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,"  viz. : 
establish  a  kingdom  of  righteousness,  God  reveals 
his  purpose  of  doing  by  "  sending  his  own  Son  in  the 
likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  by  a  sacrifice  for  sin, 
condemned  sin  in  the  flesh :  that  the  righteousness  of 
the  law  might  be  fulfilled."  The  "  Wonderful,  the 
mighty  God,  the  Prince  of  Peace,"  is  "  the  man  of 
sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief."  Immanuel  is 
the  wounded  One,  the  bruised,  the  despised,  the  re- 
jected, the  Lamb  brought  to  the  slaughter.  This  is 
the  mystery  of  godliness,  the  kingdom  that  sin 
made  the  kingdom  of  death,  redeemed  back,  and 
made  a  kingdom  of  life  by  the  grace  of  the  Sover- 
eign, expressed  in  a  willing  sacrifice  of  himself,  in 
the  actual  death  of  the  Cross. 

The  Atonement  is  a  vivid  illustration  of  the  cost 
of  the  kingdom  and  of  life,  in  the  experience  of 
every  one  who  passes  from  death  unto  life.  Christ 
declares  "  The  kingdom  is  in  you."  Redemption  is 
individual.  The  struggle,  and  temptation,  and  re- 
sistence,  and  sacrifice,  the  war  in  the  soul  between 
flesh  and  spirit,  illustrate  in  every  redeemed  life  the 
conflict  by  which  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  of 
righteousness,  and  of  the  Spirit,  triumphs  over  the 
kingdom  of  this  world,  the  kingdom  of  the  flesh. 


268  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

The  center  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is  the  Cross  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Around  the  Cross  eternities  revolve. 
Calvary  marks  the  spot,  the  battlefield,  whose 
victory  restored  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  fruits 
of  the  victory  are  being  gathered  as  the  centuries 
roll,  and  "  when  the  end  comes  the  conqueror  will 
deliver  the  whole  kingdom  that  he  purchased  with 
his  blood,  to  the  Father,"  and  the  coronation  song 
is  already  written,  "  Thou  art  worthy  .  .  .  for 
thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by  thy 
blood  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people, 
and  nation.  .  .  .  "Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was 
slain  to  receive  power,  and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and 
strength,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and  blessing.  .  .  . 
Blessing,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and  power,  be  unto 
him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb 
forever  and  ever." 

The  proclamations  of  the  herald  of  Christ,  the 
teachings  of  Christ  himself,  and  the  faith  in  which 
the  apostles  went  everywhere  preaching  the  gospel 
of  the  kingdom,  confirm  the  prophetic  visions  of  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

Between  Malachi  and  the  ministry  of  Christ 
there  is  the  silence  of  four  centuries.  Christ  and 
his  herald  found  dull  ears  for  the  reception  of  their 
message.  "  A  few  feared  the  Lord  and  spake  one 
to  another."  A  remnant  of  seekers  after  God,  and 
fellow-workers  toward  the  kingdom,  were  ready  for 
the  message  and  for  service.  The  voice  in  the 
wilderness  renewed  the  call  of  priests  and  prophets 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  269 

to  repentance.  Christ  entered  his  ministry  with 
full  consciousness  of  his  authority,  and  with  full 
knowledge  of  the  death  which  he  must  suffer  to 
establish  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  boy  knew  his 
Father's  business  and  devoted  himself  to  the  work 
of  the  King.  The  model  prayer  of  Christ  makes  the 
kingdom  the  first  desire.  The  person  of  Christ 
confirmed  the  description  of  the  prophets.  Jesus 
Christ  not  only  assured  the  kingdom,  he  was  the 
kingdom.  His  life  was  the  model  of  the  kingdom. 
To  be  in  the  kingdom  was  to  be  in  Christ.  To  be 
of  the  kingdom  was  to  be  like  Christ.  We  have 
the  fatherhood  of  God,  only  through  the  brother- 
hood of  Christ.  Moral  and  spiritual  sonship  was 
lost  in  the  wreck  of  sin.  Our  new  sonship  is  our 
regeneration  by  the  spirit  and  the  grace  of  God. 
Believers,  redeemed  by  grace,  are  admitted  into  a 
kingdom  that  was  never  destroyed.  God  and  his 
well-beloved  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  and  angels 
who  never  fell,  kept  the  kingdom  for  redeemed  men. 
Christ  extends  the  blessing  of  the  kingdom  to  as 
many  as  will  believe,  to  as  many  as  the  Father  will 
give  him  in  return  for  the  price  he  paid  for  their 
redemption.  Admission  into  this  kingdom  is  not 
determined  by  the  righteousness  of  those  who  seek 
it,  not  by  the  edict  of  the  King,  not  by  any  law,  not 
by  any  form,  nor  by  association  with  any  institu- 
tion ;  admission  is  determined  by  relationship  with 
Christ,  whose  is  "  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and 
the  glory."     The  commission  of  the  apostles  is  very 


210  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

plain,  "  I  appoint  unto  you  a  kingdom  (as  the  Father 
hath  appointed  unto  me  a  kingdom)  to  sit  on  thrones 
and  to  eat  and  drink  with  me  in  my  kingdom."  The 
fullness  of  the  kingdom  is  the  likeness  of  the  king. 
The  blessing  of  the  kingdom  is  not  a  new  patch 
on  an  old  garment,  not  new  wine  in  an  old  bottle, 
but  to  be  a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus,  to  have  a 
new  life  by  the  regeneration  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Nineteen  hundred  years  of  faith  and  patience, 
and  conflict,  and  martyrdom,  and  prayer,  and  fel- 
lowship in  work,  have  passed,  and  the  kingdom 
keeps  coming.  It  has  already  come.  It  is  a  reality 
to  a  "  number  numberless,"  who  have  already  had 
"  ministered  unto  them  an  abundant  entrance  into 
the  everlasting  kingdom." 

The  miraculous  ministry  of  the  Messiah,  begin- 
ning with  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  and  clo- 
sing with  the  mystery  of  the  Eesurrection,  fulfilling 
the  prophetic  visions  and  executing  the  purposes  of 
God  to  establish  a  spiritual  kingdom  among  men, 
gives  place  to  the  ministry  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who, 
through  the  Church,  should  continue  the  work 
which  should  finally  restore  the  kingdom  of  God  as 
a  kingdom  of  grace,  and  exalt  to  undisputed  su- 
premacy this  Messiah  "  whom  God  hath  set  at  his 
own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places,  far  above 
all  principality,  and  power,  and  might,  and  do- 
minion, and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in 
this  world,  but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come  :  and 
hath  put  all  things  under  his  feet,  and  gave  him  to 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  271 

be  the  head  over  all  things  to  the  Church,  which 
is  his  body,  the  fullness  of  him  that  filleth  all  in  all." 

A  handful  of  faithful  followers,  with  confidence 
in  their  ascended  Lord,  and  relying  upon  the  promise 
of  the  Spirit,  waited  in  a  little  upper  room,  neither 
disheartened  nor  discouraged  by  the  unbelieving 
mob  that  crowded  the  streets  of  Jerusalem.  Very 
soon  their  faith  was  rewarded  with  flaming  tongues, 
and  the  conquest  of  the  world  began. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  identified  with  any 
state  or  nation.  It  is  a  federation  of  redeemed 
men,  a  federation  of  believers,  a  federation  of  loyal 
followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  head  of  the 
spiritual  body,  and  heir  to  the  throne  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  among  all  people,  and  kindred,  and 
tongues,  and  tribes,  regardless  of  their  earthly  al- 
legiance. 

This  belief  is  the  inspiration  and  spirit  of  mis- 
sions. The  people  of  God,  the  citizens  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  whatever  may  be  their  nationality,  are 
moved  by  holy  zeal,  and  by  loyalt}r  to  their  king, 
to  extend  the  kingdom  that  they  love  and  to  pro- 
claim its  true  blessedness  to  every  creature. 

The  scepter  of  earthly  power  departed  from 
Judah,  the  throne  of  David  is  occupied  by  his 
greater  Son,  and  henceforth  the  history  of  the 
Church  is  the  history  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  This 
new  spiritual  kingdom  was  set  up  in  the  midst  of 
the  proudest  and  most  powerful  empire  that  had 
ever  reached  for  universal  dominion.     The  kingdom 


272  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

of  Christ  must  succeed  through  much  suffering,  and 
it  has  suffered  with  a  courage  that  only  confident 
faith  could  inspire.  By  turns  persecuted,  courted, 
and  corrupted  by  Kome,  hampered  by  the  compli- 
cations of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers,  subduing 
cities  which  soon  yielded  to  the  fascinations  of 
fleshly  lusts,  almost  lost  in  the  dark  ages,  yet  ever 
nurtured  by  a  remnant  that  kept  the  oracles  and 
kept  its  faith,  the  Church,  the  retarded  kingdom  of 
God,  is  born  again,  and  the  dawn  of  the  Keforma- 
tion  reveals  the  hidden  destiny,  and  assures  the 
triumph  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

As  a  part  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  bearing  our 
part  of  responsibility  for  the  final  triumph  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  we  may  claim  no  small  share  of 
the  labors  and  of  the  fruits  of  the  Reformation. 
This  free  republic  that  honors  us  with  citizenship, 
and  that  protects  our  religious  liberties,  was  founded 
by  our  Reformation  ancestors  and  upon  Reformation 
principles.  Together  with  other  Christian  nations, 
who  have  received  their  civilization  from  the  Refor- 
mation, we  control  the  destinies  of  the  world. 
The  providences  of  God  that  mark  the  advent  of 
this  new  century,  make  American  citizenship  a 
grave  responsibility.  These  providences  have 
opened  doors  for  Christian  missions  that  give  assur- 
ance to  our  strongest  faith,  and  call  for  the  best 
service  of  fellow-workers  unto  the  kingdom  of  God. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  for  me  to  detain  you 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  273 

with  any  application  of  the  subject  to  which  I  have 
asked  your  attention.  We  have  a  history  of  which 
we  are  not  ashamed.  We  have  an  equipment  full 
of  efficiency;  and  we  have  opportunities  which 
should  suggest  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility. 

But  I  am  reminded  that  an  order  of  the  Assembly 
will  devote  a  whole  day  to  the  consideration  of 
Presbyterian  progress  and  of  Presbyterian  prospect. 
Kepresentatives,  well  qualified  for  this  special  serv- 
ice, have  been  chosen,  and  we  wait  with  confidence 
for  their  reports  and  prophecies. 

A  special  appointment  of  the  Assembly  has  given 
me  an  opportunity  to  visit  many  centers  of  in- 
fluence, and  to  see  the  work  that  our  beloved 
Church  is  doing  to  advance  the  kingdom  of  God. 
And  in  closing  I  desire  to  bear  testimony  to  a  few 
things  that  should  give  us  great  encouragement  at 
the  opening  of  the  new  century. 

I  have  greatly  enjoyed  the  close  fellowship  of 
my  brethren.  I  have  found  a  deep  reverence  for 
the  Word  of  God  and  a  courageous  defense  of  its 
revealed  truths.  I  have  found  loyal  support  of  the 
ancient  Confession  that  stands  for  the  sovereignty 
of  God,  and  proclaims  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  of 
his  love  and  grace.  I  have  found  only  faithful  serv- 
ice and  fraternal  spirit.  The  Church  is  peace. 
The  Church  is  one  in  heart  and  hope,  and  purpose. 
There  are  no  roots  of  bitterness  springing  up  to 
trouble  us.  With  united  purpose  the  Church  is  set 
for  the  defense  of  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
18 


274  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES 

We  have  a  noble  ministry,  nearly  eight  thousand 
strong,  and  the  depleted  ranks  are  being  filled  by 
colleges  and  seminaries,  whose  faithful  work  praises 
them. 

The  ministry  is  strengthened  and  supported  by  a 
noble  eldership,  nearly  thirty  thousand  strong, 
whose  service  in  both  Church  and  State,  is  for  the 
glory  of  God.  Ministers  and  elders  lead  a  noble 
membership,  more  than  a  million  strong,  a  body  of 
devoted  believers  whose  lives  and  generous  gifts 
testify  to  their  fidelity.  And  not  our  least  joy  and 
hope  is  our  reserve,  a  million  and  a  half  strong, 
that  is  being  trained  in  ten  thousand  Sabbath- 
schools,  by  devoted  teachers,  for  work  unto  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

The  highway  that  unites  the  cities  of  the  Pacific 
Coast,  winds  through  mountains  and  valleys  of  sur- 
passing beauty.  The  picture  that  lingers  in  my 
memory  is  Mount  Shasta,  rising  fourteen  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea,  standing  alone  in  the  plain, 
wrapped  in  its  own  solitude  and  in  its  mantle  of 
snow.  I  gazed  upon  its  silent  glory  for  hours,  and 
at  sunset,  when  the  mountain  was  taking  on  richer 
colors,  and  revealing  greater  charms,  we  were  very 
close  to  it,  when  suddenly  it  disappeared.  Before  I 
could  recover  from  my  surprise,  the  shadow  was 
gone,  and  the  mountain  stood  out  boldly  in  its  full 
beauty.  We  had  passed  near  the  base  of  a  bleak 
foot-hill,  and  this  low  foot-hill  had  hidden  the  great 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ADDRESSES  275 

mountain.  Thus,  we  lose  sight  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  foot-hills  of  our  unbelief  and  needless 
strife,  and  worldliness,  hide  from  our  vision  "the 
mountain  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  that  is  to  be 
established  in  the  top  of  the  mountains  and  exalted 
above  the  hills,"  "unto  which  people  shall  flow, 
and  to  which  many  nations  shall  come  and  say,  let 
us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord." 


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